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In mid 2012, Kid Colton, the Barefoot Bandit, a true story of Colt Harris-Moore, Born to run, outlaw child. Colt had the local sheriff after him before the age of 10, survived his youth by slipping in and out of dumpster and homes for food, and learned to evade the police by "melting" into the Pacific Northwest wilds. In the fullness of time whatever else could be found amongst the scrapes. He got caught of course, and sent to juvy, walked away, and proceeded to Orcas Island, where, like D. B. Cooper; with no pilot training whatsoever, exited the area...

Networking has undergone radical changes in the past few years, and two startup launches this week show the revolution isn’t over yet. Barefoot Networks is making what it calls a fully programmable switch platform. It came out of stealth mode on Tuesday, the same day 128 Technology emerged claiming a new approach to routing. Both say they’re rethinking principles that haven’t changed since the 1990s. Now is a good time to shake up networking, because IT itself is changing shape, says Nemertes Research analyst John Burke. “Everybody pretty much wants and needs their IT services to work continuously and scalably,”...

COUPEVILLE, Wash. (AP) — At times, Colton Harris-Moore's two years on the run were euphoric — the nights of beatific solitude in the woods, the soaring adrenalin rush of his first moments airborne in the cockpit of a stolen plane. But most other times were far less glamorous: sleeping in portable toilets or culverts as he sought shelter from the elements and the police. The youthful thief who rocketed to international notoriety as the "Barefoot Bandit" is done with both extremes for the moment. He was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in a Washington state prison after pleading...

Fox Valley Marathon winner Tim Cunningham crossed the finish line while barefoot in downtown St. Charles on Sunday morning. He didn’t lose his shoes along the way—he ran the entire 26.2 miles without them. “It was kind of a perfect day to run,” said the Charlottesville, VA resident, whose race time was 2:56:24. “The bridges were a little rough, a little slick at times, but it was good.”It was the 15th marathon for Cunningham, who spent the past year building up calluses on his feet. He started running barefoot when he could not afford five-toe running shoes; though he can afford the shoes now,...

Colton Harris-Moore - the 19-year-old from Washington state known as the “Barefoot Bandit” - stole planes, boats and thousands of dollars and was on the run from authorities for more than two years. ~snip~ Colton eventually left Washington State and the FBI became involved when he was on the run in Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming. It turned into an international manhunt when Colton crossed Canadian borders, and even managed to fly a stolen plane all the way to the Bahamas. After stealing four planes, luxury cars, power boats, thousands of dollars, while being barefoot the entire time, his signature lifestyle...

Daniel Howell, a biology professor at Virginia's Liberty University, is on a "crusade to challenge America's cultural addiction to shoes", according to a feature in the Richmond Times-Dispatch that has hit the wires. Howell "likens the shoe to a cast that immobilizes an otherwise healthy foot and prevents it from functioning as nature intended," the article says. His argument doesn't always go over well in restaurants. So he carries a letter from the state health department that says bare feet in a restaurant is not a health code violation. Howell teaches biology at Liberty and is required to wear shoes...

People might think they're crazy, but barefoot runners, even those who pursue punishing marathons sans shoes, say that freeing your feet from the confines of a sneak is just as God and nature intended. "It's kind of like trying to explain a sunset to a blind person," said Rick Roeber, the Midwest representative for TheRunningBarefoot.com,... He compares walking and running in shoes to typing with gloves on. It's just not quite right. "You have to try the experience to understand," he said. SNIP Elizabeth McCullough of Lexington, Ky., who started running barefoot earlier this year, went to Saxton's website for...

At Stanford University, California, two sales representatives from Nike were watching the athletics team practise. Part of their job was to gather feedback from the company's sponsored runners about which shoes they preferred. Unfortunately, it was proving difficult that day as the runners all seemed to prefer... nothing. 'Didn't we send you enough shoes?' they asked head coach Vin Lananna. They had, he was just refusing to use them. 'I can't prove this,' the well-respected coach told them. 'But I believe that when my runners train barefoot they run faster and suffer fewer injuries.' Nike sponsored the Stanford team as...

With her biological clock winding down and no sign of Mr. Right, one woman pursues a different route to motherhood. I'm in my ob-gyn's office, feet in the stirrups. Dr. Bakas peeks up over the paper sheet draped across my knees and pulls his gloves off with a snap. "So? Do you want a cigarette?" My friend Bev laughs, as does the nurse, but I try not to because I don't want to jiggle or move or do anything to disrupt those tiny little sperm as they make the long journey up through my uterus to my little waiting egg....

The president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, announced this week that he will resign from his position at the end of this academic year. This became almost inevitable after he made a speech last winter claiming "innate differences" between the sexes may well explain why more men succeed in math and sciences than do women. Not the most radical statement in history, perhaps, but bold enough to make him a hated figure on campuses and a punching bag for radical feminists. I don't really know if there is a different aptitude for science between men and women and don't particularly...

Author, historian and former state representative Daniel W. Barefoot has written nine previous books, several of them covering former Civil War events and/or personalities. But he's well aware that his latest Let Us Die Like Brave Men: Behind The Dying Words of Confederate Warriors (John F. Blair) may stir some severe emotions and responses, particularly with its cover illustration that includes a soldier holding the Confederate flag. Yet Barefoot, who signs copies of his book today at the Hermitage Museum Shop, hopes that readers understand exactly what's he trying to do with this book rather than make assumptions depending on...

TOKYO (AP) - How about getting paid 1 million yen for having a baby? To combat a shrinking population, a small town in northern Japan has decided to give a cash award worth about $9,600 to each female resident who has a third child, an official said Friday. To be eligible, the women must have lived in Yamatsuri town for more than a year, town hall spokesman Eiichi Takanobu said. Yamatsuri, where the population has fallen from 7,400 a decade ago to 7,000 this year, is not alone among Japanese towns who are losing people. As the country's birthrate declines,...

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot his whole life, which created an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him frail. With his odd diet, he suffered from very bad breath. This made him .... Wait for it... ... A super-callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis!