Arthur Jones, 1927 - 2007

Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries and MedX corporation, died in his home in Ocala, Florida last Tuesday. During his lifetime he served in the Navy in World War II (possibly as a pilot, but I'm not sure whether that was then or in Korea), imported exotic animals, was a wildlife filmmaker, and invented the first variable resistance exercise machines. At one point he rescued 63 elephants from Zimbabwe, most or all of whom were orphaned babies, and flew them to Florida (not sure if the problem was drought or poachers). He also invented the MedX Lumbar Extension machine, which is scientifically proven to cure chronic lower back pain in 80% of patients. He lived a long, controversial, and extremely interesting life. All the articles about his death that I was able to find were pretty terrible, but these two were the best of the worst.

http://www.ocala.com/article/20070828/NEWS/70828011/1356/NEWS01&source=RSS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/29/AR2007082902246.html

The second one has some pretty serious inaccuracies and lies in it. The IRS was unable to find that he had done anything illegal; they investigated him because he criticized them on national television. Also he managed to not pay income taxes for something like 30 years by always investing any of his profits into new business endeavors. Another important thing they leave out is that of all the people who tried to sue him, none of them ever won. After reading his descriptions of some of these people, I don't blame him for threatening to kill them. As Jones often said, "I don't care what the problem is, violence is the solution." I don't necessarily agree with everything he ever said, but there is no question that Arthur Jones was an independent thinker, and was probably among the most intelligent humans to live in the past century. Anyway, here is the statement from MedX about Jones' death:

Inventor and Fitness Pioneer Arthur Jones Dies
Arthur Jones, the legendary founder of Nautilus and MedX exercise equipment whose groundbreaking inventions changed the way people throughout the world approach health and fitness, died on August 28, in Ocala, Fla. He was 81.
Jones was born in Arkansas in 1927 and grew up in Seminole, Oklahoma. After successful simultaneous careers as a pilot, animal importer and wildlife filmmaker, Jones´ enthusiasm for physical fitness led him to develop the Nautilus exercise machine system. Introduced in 1970, the equipment was the first of its kind to utilize the principle of variable resistance to develop muscles and build strength. Nautilus quickly became a lifestyle phenomenon, creating widespread awareness of the benefits of strength training and launching the modern fitness industry.
The success of Nautilus Sports/Medical Industries earned Jones a place on Forbes list of The 400 Richest Americans. He sold the brand in 1986 and liquidated much of his extensive North Florida real estate holdings – including his private zoo – to finance his next enterprise, MedX Corporation.
Jones reportedly spent more than $100 million of his own money to develop accurate measurement tools and rehabilitation machines designed to address problem areas of the lower back, neck and knees. Jones developed the MedX medical machines through years of research at the University of Florida’s Center for Exercise Science in the College of Medicine and College of Health and Human Performance, Gainesville, Fla.
Geared toward spinal rehabilitation, the MedX Medical line introduced in 1987, produced two breakthrough technologies: 1) positioning the patient to ensure that only the targeted muscles are worked during the session, and 2) a computerized measure of the patient’s functional strength to monitor progress during the rehabilitation process. These unique machines were able to make resistance adjustments as strength increased. Jones sold MedX Corporation in 1996.
The MedX Core Spinal Fitness System was developed in 2002 as a medically-based workout system delivered through five machines designed to isolate and strengthen the low back, neck and torso muscles. Both the MedX Medical and Core systems are used in spinal clinics and throughout the world, with the Core System being used as the exclusive system in a growing number of fitness centers.
Jim Flanagan, MedX´s Vice President of Sales, who worked with Jones from 1971 until 1996 and remained a lifelong friend, commented: "I hope that Arthur Jones´ contributions in the fields of fitness, sports medicine, exercise physiology and orthopedic rehabilitation will be recognized and appreciated. With the accomplishments and contributions he has made over the past 40 years, he should be awarded the Nobel Prize one day."

We tried to get a picture of us with the tower in the background but it was raining really hard. Or as the French say, "Il pleut des bebes!"

Out to dinner in Paris.

Us at the end of our journey with Arthur's friend Thibeau. Thibault? I'm not sure but I think it's one of those.

We had 3 different people try to take a group picture of us with the cliffs in the background but none of them really turned out that well.

This is the view facing in from the cliffs.

Anna said this was a pretty picture!

Now we are in Paris on the steps of the Cathedral Montmartre I think.

Yes, Pieboy is making a kissy face.

That's the tourist center at the cliffs. It kinda looks like a hobbit hole though.

A tower.

More cliffs.

Mom I thought you'd like this one because you can see the rock layers.

I'm not sure if you can make them out or not but there are some mountains way over on the other side of the bay from the cliffs.

More of the Burren.

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The other side of the bay from the Burren.

Mike with his shirt tied around his head standing next to a pile of rocks at the summit of the mountain we climbed at the Burren.

The day after seeing the Burren we took a bus down to the Cliffs of Moher which was pretty amazing. I liked the Burren better, however, because we were the only ones there and you could really see forever. The cliffs were a little different because there were tourists all over the place, and there were walls so that you couldn't really get right up to the edge. Also some of the really cool parts of the cliffs that we wanted to go to, like the part in the above picture, they weren't letting people go to. Apparently this was because they were in farm fields and they're really concerned about Footh and Mouth disease right now.

The view of the bay from the Burren.

Mike pretending he's an Abercrombie and Fitch model or something...

The Burren.

More of the Burren.

This is us trespassing on someone's property.

Another view of Kinvarra.

Lots of cows in Ireland. Sheep too.

Part of John Prine's house.

A castle outside of Kinvarra.

The view of Kinvarra from the castle with the Burren in the background.

Mike, Arthur, me and Pieboy.

Europe!

Well Mike, Pieboy, and I spent two weeks in Europe visiting Arthur, during which time we saw Paris, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin(just the airport), Galway, and a small town in Ireland named Kinvarra. I'm finally getting around to uploading some pictures for everybody, but unfortunately I am a terrible photographer. On top of that, after spending 2 sleepless nights without a place to stay (the first night was spent on various trains with almost 7 hours on the streets of Paris, and the second night was spent under various bridges in Amsterdam) a very tired Luke accidentally deleted all the pictures on his camera from the first half of the trip. If your camera ever asks you if you want to format your memory card, don't get curious and do it. It deletes everything without any kind of warning message. Anyway that means I have no pictures from Bordeaux which is too bad because it was a beautiful city. It was probably the best of the cities we visited, and certainly had the best weather. By the time we got to Ireland I had figured out how to actually take decent pictures with my camera, but I do have this one good picture from Amsterdam. I don't know what that building is but it looked cool.

This is a pretty house in Ireland.

That is Pieboy posing with some sort of evil monster we found in John Prine's backyard in Kinvarra.

The view from John Prine's house. Those mountains are the Burren, where we walked to a couple days later and there are more pictures from the Burren above. I tried to make these posts in reverse order so this one would be on top, but somehow Blogger did the opposite.