Way to represent Alan et al.!
I thought the article was fairly neutral, as far as these things go. When journalists write about stuff they've only had a day or two to become acquainted with, they almost always adopt the two-sides-to-the-story trope. It makes writing hastily a lot easier if you frame the story that way.
My house is full of excessive skin transfer I guess, but somehow we keep the pestilence at bay. After the excoriated flacks build up sufficiently, the skin slag becomes almost indistinguishable from shag carpeting.
I don't know how someone can deal with others' sweat everywhere at the gym but get squeamish about bare feet. I guess it's the common misperception that feet, shod or bare, are just naturally gross, when in fact it's keeping them inside shoes and socks all the time that make them way.
Alan, did you get that stud build from yanking impacted wisdom teeth?
Shod or bare, how often do people drop free weights on their feet? I've been doing weights on and off for 30 some years, and have yet to drop anything anywhere. If you're doing an exercise to failure, you get a spotter. On the whole, I would think doing weights barefoot is much safer, because you have better balance and stability, especially for things like power cleans, squats, and deadlifts.
Also, in all the years of trolling these forums, I've yet to see a thread or even a single post mentioning a BFer with hook worm.
I think I mentioned it once somewhere. It was during the raining season in Mozambique, and I had to rush out to divert water from my house during a downpour that had turned my sandy street into a gushing stream. My understanding is that the parasite is dormant when the sand is dry but becomes active when the sand is wet or moist. Shoes probably would've helped, but I spent most of my time bare or in sandals during that time. I also cut off a big chunk of my big toe on some sharp bamboo in Sulawesi. Those are the only two real mishaps after spending a good part of my adult life barefoot.