Backpacks

A book bag is a simple thing, but until he got one Thursday, 10-year-old Eric Ruiz often felt left out and different at school. "Everybody had a backpack and I didn't," he said. Not anymore. Eric was one of 100 fifth-graders at Bassett Street Elementary School who received free personalized book bags Thursday from the Assistance League of the San Fernando Valley. Inside the black book bags, each of the students found a notebook, a glue stick, a ruler, folders, pens and pencils.

UC Irvine's chancellor pledged Wednesday to find and discipline whoever slipped a racist note into a black female student's backpack last week. The student found the note, which read "Go back 2 Africa slave," while she was in the science library on May 7, according to UCI police. The department is investigating what it is calling a hate incident. "When apprehended, the responsible individual(s) will face appropriate sanctions," Chancellor Michael Drake said in a statement on UCI's website.

Altadena Works might sound like a San Gabriel Valley community job center, but it's actually a new line of totes and backpacks made in California. Based in L.A., Altadena Works is a collaboration between Ricky Swallow, an artist, and Ryan Conder, owner of the men's boutique South Willard. Swallow, a sculptor and painter, collects vintage outdoor gear, much of it American-made, from brands such as San Diego's Gregory Mountain Products and Colorado's now-defunct Alpine Designs. He discovered that Conder shared an appreciation for the gear's design and construction, which are highly coveted in Japan but not as much here.

AFRICA Slide show Dave Garfinkle will show slides of his trip in June to northern and southern Africa, including Swaziland, Lesotho and Mozambique. When, where: 7:30 p.m. Monday at Distant Lands, 20 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. Admission, info: Free. RSVP to (626) 449-3220. BACKPACKING Workshop Glen Van Peski will take you through the steps on how to pack lighter so you can do more. When, where: 7 p.m. Friday at the Adventure 16 store, 11161 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles.

Schoolchildren who lug around heavy backpacks are more likely to get hurt tripping over them than suffer back strains from carrying them, researchers said. Most backpack-linked injuries are cuts and sprains from tripping over or getting hit by one, or gouging a hand while reaching inside, the report in the journal Pediatrics said. Heavily publicized warnings to lighten schoolchildren's backpacks would eliminate fewer than one-quarter of pack-related injuries.

A biomechanics professor specializing in the movement of fish and frogs has invented a backpack that harvests electricity from the springy up-and-down motion generated by walking. The backpack, which glides vertically as much as 2 inches on a sled-like frame, can generate as much as 7.4 watts with each step when carrying a 44-pound load. The vertical movement turns a gear that creates an electrical current by moving a wire coil in and out of a magnet.

Question: My kids aren't even halfway through the school year, and already they're loaded down with books, spiral notebooks and who-knows-what-else they carry in their packs. Can carrying this weight be harmful to their health? GLADE WINTERS Bakersfield Answer: Backpacks may be the easiest way for your kids to carry everything they need for school (books, supplies and maybe a sandwich or two smashed into the bottom), but you're right to be concerned about the weight of the bags. The U.S.

Carrying heavy loads could become easier thanks to a new ergonomic backpack that uses bungee cords to take the strain off the joints, scientists reported this week in the journal Nature. The cords suspend the load in the pack so it stays at the same height while the wearer is running or walking and reduces the risks of muscle and joint problems. Its designers said it will allow users to carry an extra 12 pounds while expending the same amount of energy as when carrying a normal backpack.

Cynthia Berry, 19, is pregnant and homeless. Due in roughly four months, Berry survives by selling incense on the Venice boardwalk. When she heard someone was giving away backpacks full of food and other supplies at the Westminster dog park on Saturday, she was among the first to show up. The sturdy black backpacks, which volunteers from the Giving Spirit like to call "survival kits," contain about three dozen items essential to...

Backpacks, once sported by hikers, rock climbers and other outdoor enthusiasts, have come down from the mountain and scaled the heights of fashion. They're a must-have for kids heading back to school. Women are carrying them instead of purses to parties, dance clubs and malls. Backpacks are even going to work--especially on casual Fridays. Some of the latest fashion-conscious backpacks scarcely resemble the functional canvas knapsacks from which they originated.

BOSTON - The FBI appealed for the public's help Thursday in identifying two men wearing baseball caps and backpacks, one of whom was seen placing a backpack at the site of the second Boston Marathon bombing. As President Obama traveled to the shaken city with a promise that it would "learn to run again," the FBI released photos and a video of two men seen walking through a crowd outside a restaurant near one of the two deadly explosions. "They appear to be associated," Boston FBI chief Richard DesLauriers said as he detailed the most significant break yet in the investigation into who was responsible for the bombs that exploded Monday near the marathon's finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 170. PHOTOS: Explosions at Boston Marathon FBI officials believe they may have captured the planting of one of the crude pressure-cooker bombs outside a crowded restaurant near the finish line.

What is wrong with the New York Post? Thursday morning, the tabloid newspaper's front page featured a huge photo of two young men with backpacks, with the giant headline: “Bag Men: Feds seek these two pictured at Boston Marathon.” In the online story, the pair's faces had big red circles around them. Yes, sort of like targets. Turns out, the young men had nothing to do with the blasts. Thursday afternoon, the Post backpedaled:  “Investigators have now cleared the two men whose pictures were circulated last night in an email among law enforcement officials, sources told The Post today.

BOSTON - Authorities have obtained clear images of the faces of two men with backpacks who they believe were acting suspiciously around the time of the Boston Marathon bombings, a potential breakthrough in the search to find who planted the deadly devices, sources familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. A department store surveillance camera caught an image of at least one of the men leaving a backpack near the finish line, a federal law enforcement official said. Another official briefed on the investigation said the image that shows two men is the first indication that more than one bomber may have been responsible for the attacks that killed three people and injured more than 170 at Monday's race.

Investigators believe at least one of the two bombs in Boston was made with a pressure cooker, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials.  Rich DesLauriers, FBI special agent in charge in Boston, said at an afternoon news conference that investigators found pieces of black nylon from two backpacks and possible pressure cooker metal fragments. He said all were being sent to the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.   A federal law enforcement official who asked not be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly said evidence recovered at the scene of the marathon explosion suggests the ingredients for one of the two bombs was hidden in a metal pressure cooker stuffed inside a backpack.

Eagle Creek has fine-tuned its new Afar Backpack (EC-60263) to be all business and a pleasure. It weighs a pound and 11 ounces and is 12 1/2 - by-20 1/2-by-8 1/2 inches. It has well-padded contoured shoulder straps, a tuck-away padded hip belt, adjustable sternum straps, external compression straps and a sturdy top grab handle. A padded breathable mesh back panel makes for comfy cushioning. The back panel incorporates a zippered padded compartment for a laptop (up to 17 inches)

BACKPACKING Presentation An REI expert will provide excellent tips on lightweight backpacking techniques, plus information on shelters, backpacks and food choices. When, where: 7 p.m. Thursday at REI stores in Arcadia, 214 N. Santa Anita Ave., and Santa Monica, 402 Santa Monica Blvd. Admission, info: Free. (626) 447-1062 for Arcadia; (310) 458-4370 for Santa Monica. HIKING Presentation Guide Gary Scott will share photos, stories and travel tips about Croatia, Slovenia and the Dolomite Mountains of northern Italy, some of the world's best walking and hiking areas.

School security is a heavy burden. More so when you're carrying it on your back. The Pasadena Unified School District decided years ago to eliminate lockers because of fears that they could become a hiding place for weapons and drugs. As a result, students like sixth-grader Brandon Schmiedeberg shuffle from class to class at Wilson Middle School toiling under the strain of backpacks stuffed with a locker's worth of binders, folders, notebooks, dictionaries, thesauruses and textbooks.

Several times a week, Lambert H. Cross throws a saddle onto a horse and rides for miles out among the coyotes and towering cacti of the starkly beautiful Arizona desert. But before each trip, he and his family gather to pray. Then he straps a .357 magnum pistol to his hip and hopes that should the need arise he can reach it in time. "They are resigned to the fact that one day I won't be coming through the door again," said Cross, a Papago Indian who has worked since 1973 as an anti-smuggling scout for the U.S. Customs Service.

SEATTLE - In what has become a chillingly familiar event across the country, school authorities in eastern Washington recently discovered a gun and a knife in the backpack of a student. But what stunned the small town of Colville was whom the backpack belonged to: a 10-year-old student at Fort Colville Elementary School. School authorities said two fifth-grade boys planned to use the weapons to lure another student outside the school and kill her "because she was really annoying.

UCLA freshman Shabazz Muhammad's Gucci backpack, thrust into the limelight by an Internet reporter's observation, was a “birthday and Christmas gift,” Ron Holmes, his father, said Friday. Holmes said the gift was purchased by Muhammad's mother and sister. He also said that the family has provided UCLA's compliance office with receipts. A Yahoo! Sports reporter mentioned the backpack in a story about the Bruins' 84-73 victory over Arizona on Thursday, noting that it was worth at least $1,000.