BRANCHBURG – After centuries of lugging a heavy bag over one shoulder, eating too many Christmas cookies, crouching in a sleigh while being pulled by eight reindeer and living a sedentary lifestyle for 364 days a year, it may be time for Santa Claus to make an “adjustment” to his health says the Association of NJ Chiropractors.

“It is imperative that in order for Santa to be healthy enough to fulfill his mission of delivering children’s favorite toys and goodies on his sleigh all over the world for many more centuries to come, he needs to start treating his body better and that means making some healthy choices, with a chiropractic adjustment the perfect place to start,” said Dr. Joseph D’Angiolillo, President of the ANJC.

Based on observances over the abuse done to his physical being over the centuries, the ANJC has determined that jolly old St. Nick may be in danger of suffering from the following lower back and neck problems.

• Lower back pain caused by obesity, sedentary lifestyle and lifting a bag filled with tons of toys.
• Back and neck pain caused from tossing the bag of toys over his shoulder.
• Knee strain from climbing down chimneys and crouching in his sleigh.

In order to ensure a healthy Santa, the ANJC offers these 10 health tips for him to follow:

1. It is time for Santa to follow a year-long exercise program. This helps alleviate physical stress placed on his body this time of year. Santa’s big belly is the worst culprit, as it puts unwanted pressure on the muscles, ligaments and tendons in his lower back.
2. Santa needs to equally distribute the weight he carries between both arms. Santa’s elves need to repack his bag to evenly distribute items he is carrying. He should stop trying to be a hero by carrying one enormous bag over his shoulder.
3. Santa should warm up and do a lot of stretching before attempting to lift any packages or items.
4. He should also avoid twisting while lifting. Twisting is one of the most dangerous movements for your spine, especially while lifting.
5. He should make sure to bend his knees when attempting to lift these packages.
6. How heavy is the bag? Santa should check the weight before attempting to lift any packages. He can do so by pushing the object lightly or moving it with his feet to see how easily it moves. Small items sometimes are heavier than the big ones. If you can’t move it, get a bunch of elves to help.
7. When sitting in his sleigh, Santa needs to keep his knees slightly higher than his hips, with his head up and back straight.
8. He also needs to avoid rolling his shoulders in the sleigh or slouching.
9. According to legend, Santa sleeps on his back with his whiskers out of the covers. Sleeping on one’s back puts approximately 50 pounds of pressure on your spine. Santa should consider placing a pillow under his knees while lying on his back or sleep on his side with a pillow between his knees.
10. Before starting an exercise program, Santa should consult with his doctor before beginning.

The Association of New Jersey Chiropractors is one of the largest associations of chiropractors in the nation, with over 1900 members, statewide.

Members of the 32nd and 2nd Air Refueling Squadrons participated in the Employment Defense and Global Engagement exercise on December 20, 2011 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. (Official U.S. Air Force photo)

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST – The 305th Air Mobility Wing completed its first ‘Elephant Walk’ in nearly five years, launching all 12 KC-10 Extenders on the ramp, one right after the other, in a 30-minute time period on Dec. 20.

The ‘Elephant Walk’ is a display of air power showcasing the 305th AMW’s contributions to Air Mobility Command. Air refuelers are the lifeline of global reach, increasing range, payload and flexibility. Air Force tankers can also refuel Navy, Marine and NATO aircraft and have an inherent cargo-carrying capability.

“With our high operations tempo and the recent events in Libya, we have been stretched thin, leaving little time to train,” said Lt. Col. Jimmy Shaw, 305th Operations Group deputy commander. “Fortunately the Air Mobility Command is rotating through the tanker units providing us a couple of weeks to focus our efforts on training, maintenance and family.”

An ‘Elephant Walk’ is a fundamental training element when preparing for Global Strike Missions.

“Being able to support a Global Strike Mission is one of our core competencies,” said Col. John Roscoe, 305th OG commander. “It is vital we are able to perform this mission so we can support Global Strike Missions and ultimately the war on terrorism.”

Members of the 32nd and 2nd Air Refueling Squadrons participated in the Employment Defense and Global Engagement exercise on December 20, 2011 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The event included mass simultaneous aerial refueling of four KC-10s by four other KC-10s. (Official U.S. Air Force photo/Pascual Flores)

Global Strike Missions consist of large formations of aircraft flying long distances to reach strategic targets. Tankers, such as the KC-10, launch in large groups to provide an aerial “gas station” for formations. The flying fuel tanks will create a layered affect flying at different altitudes to allow maximum off loading at minimum risk.

“Practicing complex missions such as large-formation refueling makes us just that much better and more capable in situations where we may be called upon,” said Shaw. “The short break from our high operations tempo made today a perfect opportunity to train for such missions.”

The ‘Elephant Walk’ required 160 Airmen from the 305th maintenance and operations groups to work a total of three shifts to complete the mission.

“This is my first ‘Elephant Walk’ training mission here, but I’ve done several in the past.” said Chief Master Sgt. Samuel D’urso, 305th OG superintendent, “The maintainers and flight crews are the key players in a mission such as this; my job is to ensure they have what they need to get the aircraft ready and to complete the mission.”

The 305th MXG members increased manning by 50 percent on three consecutive 12-hour shifts. The unit’s increased manpower enabled the preparation, launching and recovering of the aircraft from start to finish.

Mission commander, Lt. Col. Erik Simonsen, said, “The mission was a huge success and we achieved all the objectives we set out to accomplish. We didn’t do everything perfectly, but really, for doing such a large exercise the first time in such a long time, I think we achieved a lot.”

Simonsen, who is also the 32nd Air Refueling Squadron commander, added, “Overall, I think we did really well. Everybody pulled together and it was a fantastic exercise of twelve aircraft showcasing AMC’s global mission of global reach and global power.”

‘Elephant Walk’ is a unique Air Force term introduced during World War II, eventually becoming a part of the Air Force’s institutional language. The Army Air Corps’ large fleet of bombers would regularly conduct attacks by sorties comprising more than 1,000 aircraft. Observers commented that the nose-to-tail, single-file taxi movements of the heavily-laden bombers paralleled the nose-to-tail trail of lumbering elephants on their way to the next watering hole. The term stuck – and was even used to define maximum aircraft surge operations in Air Force regulations.

South Amboy City Councilman Mickey Gross is dunked to help the Dowdell Library Foundation. (Photo courtesy of the Dowdell Library Foundation)

SOUTH AMBOY — On October 2, the Dowdell Library Foundation of South Amboy raised hundreds of dollars in donations through a dunking booth at the South Amboy Street Fair to purchase an online software teaching center that will provide coaching for SAT, AP, GED, and citizenship tests as well as job search and workplace skills.

Dozens of people dunked well-known figures of South Amboy, including former Mayor John O’Leary and City Councilman Mickey Gross as well as South Amboy High School teacher and coach Tony Gonsalves.

The booth was made possible thanks to donations from State Assemblyman John Wisniewski and Dosils Scuba Shop of Middletown.

The Dowdell Library Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. For more information, visit www.DowdellFoundation.org or call 1-732-316-1078.

NEW YORK, N.Y.– It’s the cat’s meow. Literally.

For feline lovers of all ages, Bideawee, Inc., the leading pet adoption and animal welfare organization serving Long Island and New York metropolitan area communities, has gone high tech.

Starting this month, visitors simply log onto http://www.bideawee.org/kittyplaydate to enter the cat robotic online playroom and participate in a “Kitty Play Date.” With the use of a remote control on the site, you can move one of three cat toys in the playroom and encourage your purring friends to swing, push, grab and paw at whim. Bideawee is the first organization on the East Coast to offer this unique program.

“In our fast paced and 24/7 world, this technology allows browsers to log on and cue up at any hour of the day or night and truly feel connected with these cats who need attention, love and a new home,” says Nancy Taylor, Bideawee President and CEO. “The cats are stimulated to play and the people feel an integral part of the whole process. This kind of virtual companionship may lead us into an unchartered and exciting territory of online motivation and behavior. Much like people, pets benefit from this virtual connectedness too.”

How does the real-time program work? “A signal is relayed through multiple hubs throughout the U.S – and possibly the world depending on the users location – that allows for thousands of users to simultaneously watch the cats and request a place in line to play,” says Scott Harris, director of business development from Apriori Control, the Idaho-based company that developed the software.

Now all the cats need is some human (and humane) attention. They are ready and willing to be engaged in play. As for the people – you’ll have to take your place in this very popular and virtual cue.

PINOLE, Calif. — This year’s National Punctuation Day® Contest asks entrants to write a paragraph — maximum of three sentences using all 13 punctuation marks featured on the National Punctuation Day® website —to celebrate the 8th annual National Punctuation Day on Sept. 24. Contestants will compete for a box of punctuation goodies. Send your entries to Jeff@NationalPunctuationDay.com by Sept. 30 to be considered for prizes.

National Punctuation Day® — the holiday that encourages worldwide literacy — reminds America that a “semicolon is not a surgical procedure.” NPD is celebrated in schools and businesses throughout the world with activities, games, programs, and contests. It has inspired people to pay attention not only to their p’s and q’s, but also their commas, semicolons, and ellipses.

Teachers throughout the United States are seizing the teaching opportunity presented by the unusual Saturday holiday celebration this year. Students are being sent on fact-finding missions through their communities — armed with their smart phones — to take photos of incorrectly punctuated store signs and billboards. Students will prepare videos that will be posted on YouTube and used for teaching purposes for years to come.

Former newspaper reporter Jeff Rubin founded National Punctuation Day® in 2004 to draw attention to the importance of proper punctuation. “It’s a day for librarians, educators, and parents – people who are interested in teaching and promoting good writing skills to their students and their children.”

It’s also a day to remind business people that they are often judged by how they present themselves.

“All professions depend on good writing skills,” Rubin says. “When you’re talking on the telephone, people form their opinion of you by your voice. In person, it’s your appearance. With correspondence, people form their opinion of you based on your writing skills. If you can’t spell and you can’t string a few words together to make a literate sentence, your job advancement will be hindered, unless you’re a professional athlete.

“It’s sad to say, but writing skills, punctuation skills, communication skills in general, have just deteriorated over the years. You see it in newspapers, magazines and even books — misspelled words, words used incorrectly. It’s extremely frustrating. I want National Punctuation Day® to bring this to the forefront of the American consciousness in a fun, silly way.”

The NPD website (www.NationalPunctuationDay.com) serves as a resource that helps educators teach good writing skills and helps students understand the basics of punctuation. Teachers and business people worldwide use it as a reference guide.

The website features explanations of the proper usage of 13 punctuation marks, links to numerous grammar and writing resources, and a library of hundreds of photos of improperly punctuated signs and billboards sent by readers throughout the world.

On Aug. 17 an asteroid estimated to be 17 to 39 meters in diameter will pass through space intersecting the Earth’s orbit, missing a collision by only about one million miles. The object will be moving at about 13,533 miles per hour, or 3.76 miles per second.

On Nov. 8, 2011 an asteroid between 360 feet and 800 feet in diameter will pass Earth’s orbit, missing a planetary collision by a mere 200,000 miles. This huge mass of stellar debris will float by Earth about 80 percent closer than the Moon, and the impact of such an object would be expected to produce have disastrous effects.

As of October 2008, scientists at NASA have detected 982 of the near-Earth objects that are at least one kilometer wide, although it was estimated that almost 200 of the potentially dangerous asteroids and comets have not yet been found. Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into orbits that allow them to pass close to the Earth’s vicinity.

Although comets and asteroids may well have delivered the water and carbon-based molecules to the Earth’s surface – thus providing the building blocks of life itself – these giant space rocks would cause a global catastrophe if one were to strike our planet today.

It now seems likely that a comet or asteroid struck near the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico some 65 million years ago and caused the extinction of more than 75 percent of the Earth’s living organisms, including the dinosaurs.

Fortunately, anything from space that actually impacts with the Earth is likely to be so small that it would disintegrate in the atmosphere and not cause harm on the ground. On a daily basis, about one hundred tons of interplanetary material harmlessly drifts down to the Earth’s surface.

The threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters and a variety of other problems is much higher than the risk posed by an asteroid or comet.

Still, the potential harm has earned some attention in Washington DC. In 1998, Congress ordered NASA to identify near-Earth objects larger than one kilometer across and in 2005, that mission was extended to smaller objects, 140 meters across, which can wreak regional havoc.

A wealth of information about these nearby comets and asteroids may be found online at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/

Graph courtesy of NASA/JPL

NASA discovery data through Aug.14, 2011 shows that 8,080 near-Earth asteroids and comets have been found but fewer than 1,000 of them have diameters roughly one kilometer and larger. Space agency scientists have been directed to scan the heavens for potential problems until 2020.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The personal effects of Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber, will be sold via an online auction by the U.S. Marshals beginning May 18. U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell of the Eastern District of California ordered the sale in August 2010. Proceeds from the auction will be used to compensate Kaczynski’s victims.

The auction will run from May 18 to June 2. The online catalog, which will include approximately 60 lots of property, will be on the web at www.gsaauctions.gov beginning May 18. Items to be sold include personal documents, such as driver’s licenses, birth certificates, deeds, checks, academic transcripts, photos, and his handwritten codes; typewriters; tools; clothing; watches; several hundred books; and more than 20,000 pages of written documents, including the original handwritten and typewritten versions of the “Unabom Manifesto.”

“The U.S. Marshals Service has been given a unique opportunity to help the victims of Theodore Kaczynski’s horrific crimes,” said U.S. Marshal Albert Nájera of the Eastern District of California. “We will use the technology that Kaczynski railed against in his various manifestos to sell artifacts of his life. The proceeds will go to his victims and, in a very small way, offset some of the hardships they have suffered.”

Photos of selected auction lots are available at www.flickr.com/photos/usmarshals/(click on “Sets”). The catalog, photos and descriptions of all the lots will be available at www.gsaauctions.gov when the auction goes live on May 18.

HOUSTON, Texas — The Postal Service released statistics Thursday highlighting the cities where the most dog attacks occur nationwide. Houston tops the list with 62 letter carriers attacked in 2010. Jamaica, N.Y. (17 attacks), Flushing, N.Y. (15), Staten Island, N.Y. (14), Brooklyn, N.Y. (12) all ranked in the top 25.

Nationwide last year, 5,669 postal employees were attacked in more than 1,400 cities, yet that pales in comparison to the 4.7 million Americans bitten annually — the majority of whom are children. These statistics are part of the reason the Postal Service recognizes National Dog Bite Prevention Week, May 15-21. The annual event provides dog attack prevention tips and information on responsible pet ownership.

Beyond the needless pain and suffering, medical expenses from dog attacks cost the Postal Service nearly $1.2 million last year. According to the Insurance Information Institute, dog attacks accounted for more than one-third of all homeowners’ insurance liability claims paid out in 2010, costing nearly $413 million.

“We often hear two comments relating to the Postal Service, ‘the check’s in the mail,’ and ‘don’t worry, my dog won’t bite’. Given the right circumstances, any dog can bite. Dog attacks are a nationwide issue and not just a postal problem,” said Matthew Lopez, Houston postmaster. “Working with animal behavior experts, we’ve developed tips to avoid dog attacks, and for dog owners, tips for practicing responsible pet ownership.”

To spread the word that dog attacks are preventable, the Postal Service is working with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) www.aap.org, American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) www.avma.org, and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) www.plasticsurgery.org.

The AVMA offers the following tips:

How to Avoid Being Bitten

• Don’t run past a dog. The dog’s natural instinct is to chase and catch you.
• If a dog threatens you, don’t scream. Avoid eye contact. Try to remain motionless until the dog leaves, then back away slowly until the dog is out of sight.
• Don’t approach a strange dog, especially one that’s tethered or confined.
• People choosing to pet dogs should obtain permission from the owner first and always let a dog see and sniff them before petting the animal.
• If you believe a dog is about to attack you, try to place something between yourself and the dog, such as a backpack or a bicycle.

How to Be a Responsible Dog Owner

• Obedience training can teach dogs proper behavior and help owners control their dogs.
• When a carrier comes to your home, keep your dog inside, away from the door in another room.
• Dogs can be protective of their territory and may interpret the actions of letter carriers as a threat. Please take precautions when accepting mail in the presence of your pet.
• Spay or neuter your dog. Neutered dogs are less likely to roam and bite.
• Dogs that receive little attention or handling, or are left tied up for long periods of time, frequently turn into biters.

The Postal Service places the safety of its employees as a top priority. Letter carriers fearing for their safety due to a loose or unrestrained pet may curtail delivery and ask homeowners to pick up their mail at the Post Office until the carrier is assured the pet is restrained. In cases where a carrier sees a dog roaming and can’t discern where it resides, delivery could be curtailed to the entire neighborhood.

“Warm and wonderful relationships are shared between more than 72 million pet dogs and their owners in the United States,” said Dr. Lori Teller, who serves on the AVMA’s Animal Welfare Committee and is past president of the Texas VMA. “To protect those relationships, everyone must take responsibility for preventing dog bite injuries.

“Half of all children will be bitten by a dog by the time they’re high school seniors,” said Dr. John Fraser, of the Texas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “It’s so important for parents to supervise young children around dogs at all times, and it’s just as important for children to be taught from an early age how to keep from being bitten.”

“Dog bite prevention education cannot begin early enough,” said Kelly Voigt, 19, the victim of a savage dog attack when she was seven years old. She endured the pain of 100 stitches to her face as part of her recovery. The experience was the catalyst behind the creation of Prevent The Bite, a non-profit organization that promotes dog bite prevention to young children. To date, Voigt has spoken before more than 10,000 elementary school students.

To help educate the public about dog bites, the AVMA developed an online brochure: www.avma.org/press/publichealth/dogbite/mediakit.asp.

STATE — The Social Security Administration today announced the most popular baby names in New Jersey for 2010. Michael and Isabella topped the list.

The top five boys and girls names for 2010 in New Jersey were:

Boys:

1. Michael
2. Ryan
3. Jayden
4. Anthony
5. Joseph

Girls

1. Isabella
2. Sophia
3. Olivia
4. Ava
5. Emily

Last week the federal government’s top official for baby names, Michael J. Astrue, commissioner of Social Security, announced Isabella and Jacob were the most popular baby names in the U.S.

Visit Social Security’s website — www.socialsecurity.gov — to see the top baby names for 2010.

In addition to each state’s top 100 baby names, Social Security’s website has a list of the 1,000 most popular boys’ and girls’ names for 2010 and a list of the top 100 names for twins born in 2010. The website also offers lists of baby names for each year since 1880.

New Jersey’s oldest weekly newspaper is the topic of conversation in Arizona this week, as a schools superintendent addresses charges that she plagiarized material from our website.

For details, read Hayley Ringle’s article from the Arizona Republic.