Cheetahs

After reading a small article in Wired Magazine, it mentioned that there is a South African Paraolympic runner named Oscar Pistorius. He had his lower legs amputated when he was about 11 months old. He can run 400 meters in 46.6 seconds which is a second slow of the Olympic qualifying time. He is training and wants to run in the Beijing Olympics in 2008. His legs are made of a carbon-fiber prosthetic and some of the other runners say that his Cheetahs or artificial legs give him an advantage at running. They say that they are longer than normal. However they do not give him any calf power whatsoever. How Oscar is related to the Hayle's article is that he is essentially a running cyborg. She said "If you are tired of the ills of the flesh, then get rid of the flesh, we can do that now." This reminds me of Oscar because his parents decided to ampuate his non-calf bone legs. I also think that Hayle's statement with how she says that "Already about 10 percent of the U.S. population are cyborgs.." However, in Oscar's case he is even moreso a cyborg but it is interesting because is he really still disabled? He can run with some of the best runners in the world with his prosthetic legs. Where do we draw the line?

http://www.ossur.com/?pageid=3547

Here is the website for the Cheetah prosthetics.


http://www.ossur.com/?pageid=3364

Here is some information on Oscar Pistorius.