Socks: A Great Gift for the Homeless

Life is composed of ups and downs. At times we have small gains and losses, while at others we rejoice in momentous achievements and mourn massive losses. Homeless folks live every day with great losses in numerous aspects of their lives. How can you make a difference in the face of such need?

Giving a homeless person a pair of socks is a small gesture that has a big impact. According to Otago University professor Jim Cotter, overall body temperature is closely linked to the temperature of our feet[1]. Our feet have few muscles and a large surface area, which causes them to lose heat rapidly. This in turn causes our body temperature to decrease. Pulling on a warm pair of socks will avoid the uncomfortable sensation of cold feet and help regulate the entire body’s temperature.

Warm feet have another benefit which would be an invaluable help to a homeless person and that is to aid the immune system. Welsh Professor Ron Eccles did a study which proved that people with cold feet are twenty percent more likely to get sick, then those with warm feet.[2] Cold feet and a low body temperature cause fewer white blood cells to circulate within our bodies. The lack of these germ fighting cells allows common colds and viruses to invade and work havoc within us.  Such a simple thing as slipping on a pair of warm socks encourages our bodies to circulate important white blood cells and helps prevent sickness.

As the weather grows colder this season and you pull on thicker socks, remember how important this lowly garment is for your overall wellbeing and don’t stop at that, make a big difference in a homeless person’s life by giving them a pair of socks!

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[1] http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/7205016/Ask-a-scientist-Feet-keep-us-warm

[2] http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/11/14/cold.chill/index.html

The Blog and I

I burst into the world in 1981. My days were so full of milk and reaching babyhood milestones that I did not take the time to appreciate my nine-year head start on the blog. The earliest predecessors of the blog only debuted in the early 1990s. These forerunners were similar to bulletin boards. Topics of interest were posted and then in the threads below them internauts, which were scarce back then, shared their opinions.

By 1994, I was entering my teens and up to my ears in junior high. Blogs, however, were gaining on me, as the first one was leaving college. Literally! Justin Hall, who is credited with creating the first blog, made a personal webpage while he was in college. He used it to share his opinions and any internet news which caught his eye.

As I faced popularity issues in high school, personal webpages gradually entered the spotlight on the internet. Various internet aficionados built their personal webpages using HTML. These webpages soon earned the name Weblog, because they were logs of what their owners found interesting and helpful on the World Wide Web. Eventually the “we” was dropped and the blog had officially come to the internet.

Fresh out of high school in 2000, I had plenty of book learning under my cap, but desperately needed to gain experience. Blogs continued racing ahead of me. Programmers developed blogging platforms, which enabled common people to maintain a blog by simply clicking a few buttons. Instantly blogging became a popular means of sharing our daily life with friends and family. Within a short a short time, blogs gained entrance into the professional world as politicians and newspapers posted political viewpoints and current news. The blog was now a valuable means of communicating with a growing audience.

Blogs have continued to develop steadily and their use has spread to every corner of the universe in the last fifteen years. The Human Spaceflight Blog, which carries news “From the space shuttle and beyond”, is proof of this. There are currently over one hundred million blogs and at least four times that many people who read blogs on a daily basis. This extensive readership surfs the internet for blogs carrying the latest Hollywood gossip, world news, instructions for their favorite hobbies, articles on medical conditions, updates from their local animal shelter … the list is unending.

Suffice it to say that blogs play a vital part in our society. The use of blogs will continue to evolve in the years to come. Eventually the blog may change so much that even its name will change. However, the need for people to communicate in a practical way among themselves will never change.  

For those of you who are wondering, I continue lagging behind the blog. I have learned a lot and gained experience over the years, but am still struggling to carve out my little niche in the world. Maybe one day I will catch up with the blog …. J

Sources

http://human-spaceflight.blogspot.com.br/

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2011/03/a-brief-history-of-blogging/

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/history-blogging-51411626