Back to running

October 9, 2019
Today I set out to run three or four miles in Springbrook prairie. The weather was perfect for running, sunny, cool, with a little wind. After running 2 miles I was planning to turn back. However I was trying to recite a particular poem and decided to keep running while I remembered it. After a few minutes I decided to keep running and complete the loop in the prairie, together with a bit of extra half mile running, adding up to 6 miles. It is the first time I have run that distance this year. Feel tired but good.

Running on a treadmill- not quite satisfying! More for exercise than for the joy of running.

Scientists put tiny glasses on praying mantis to test insect 3D vision - CBS News

Scientists put tiny glasses on praying mantis to test insect 3D vision - CBS News: "These might be the most stylish bugs around. Scientists made praying mantises wear tiny 3D glasses to test if the insects have strereopsis, or 3D vision. While these insects won't be watching the new "Star Wars" film in IMAX 3D anytime soon, proving that they do have 3D vision is significant because up until now, 3D vision had only been confirmed in vertebrates.

The research team from Newcastle University in the United Kingdom published their findings in the journal Scientific Results.

Back in 1980s, scientists previously used less sophisticated means to test for stereopsis in a praying mantis. They placed prisms of differing powers before the eyes of the insect, which caused the mantis to just miss out on striking an object set in front of it. This suggested that these creatures see the world similar to the way humans do, but was not necessarily a direct test for 3D vision."



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Cut Alcohol to Less Than One Drink a Day, Britons Are Warned - Bloomberg Business

Cut Alcohol to Less Than One Drink a Day, Britons Are Warned - Bloomberg Business: "Men and women should drink no more than six pints of beer or standard glasses of wine a week, according to new U.K. government guidelines that warn that any level of alcohol consumption raises the risk of cancer.
The new guidance, published in London on Friday, lowers the recommended maximum intake for men to 14 U.K. units of alcohol a week, the same as for women, from 21 units. A pint of beer with a 4 percent alcohol content or a medium-sized 175-milliliter glass of wine contains 2.3 units. People of both sexes are urged to have several alcohol-free days a week."



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Neanderthal Genes Gave Modern Humans An Immunity Boost, Allergies – Eurasia Review

Neanderthal Genes Gave Modern Humans An Immunity Boost, Allergies – Eurasia Review: "Neanderthal Genes Gave Modern Humans An Immunity Boost, Allergies"



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Soda Tax in Mexico Causes Serious Sales Dip in Sugary Drinks

Soda Tax in Mexico Causes Serious Sales Dip in Sugary Drinks: "Taxes on soda and other sugary drinks have not generally fared well. Several countries and American cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco have tried and failed, due in large part to lobbying, political contributions and protests by the soda industry. While health experts generally agree that Americans and people in many other countries consume too much sugar, much of it in the form of beverages like soft drinks, there has been little evidence to date proving that taxes on such products are effective in getting people to stop downing sugary drinks."



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Una Mullally: Embrace your Irishness and celebrate 1916

Una Mullally: Embrace your Irishness and celebrate 1916: " 
There are two types of people living in Ireland right now; those who are sick of 1916, and those who are sick of people who are sick of 1916. Get used to it, because that’s how the year is going to roll.
Pick your camp. Choose your team. This centenary is going to get divisive. Brothers will be pitted against brothers, mothers against daughters, fathers against sons. It reminds me of something… I can’t quite think of what, probably because according to the next year, Irish history begins, ends and is entirely made up of those six days in April nearly 100 years ago.
Me? I can’t get enough of 1916. For a nation of people who are constantly harping on (sorry) about national identity, we have a strange tendency to disconnect ourselves from it. Our language is ridiculed by many and bitched about as irrelevant, when it’s of essential importance. Our music falls victim to sideswipes about “diddley-eye”, even though traditional Irish music is probably the most famous world music there is."



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Five third-level colleges financially vulnerable

Five third-level colleges financially vulnerable: "At least five third-level institutions across Ireland are in financially vulnerable positions as they struggle to cope with cuts in State funding and rising student numbers.
They include four institutes of technology – Dundalk IT, Waterford IT, Letterkenny IT and Galway Mayo IT – as well as the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.
While none of the colleges is in imminent danger of collapse, the Higher Education Authority has confirmed it is reviewing their systems and performance to help restore them to financial stability."



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We have to stand up to litter louts. Fines won’t stop them | Alice Arnold | Opinion | The Guardian

We have to stand up to litter louts. Fines won’t stop them | Alice Arnold | Opinion | The Guardian: "It’s over three years ago that I threw a plastic bottle back through the car window whence it came. I thought little of it at the time until I tweeted about it and a small media storm erupted. Apparently, it was not normal to stand up to litter louts. Which is not to say that the issue is not important to people. It is clearly something many of us feel very strongly about. We just don’t take any action.

Now I hear that the Department for Communities and Local Government is planning to increase fines for dropping litter. The minimum fine is set to double to £100, with communities minister Marcus Jones claiming that those who drop litter would be “hit in the pocket”."



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China's Message to Its Professors: Get Back to the Classroom - Bloomberg Business

China's Message to Its Professors: Get Back to the Classroom - Bloomberg Business: "Hundreds of senior academics are quitting lucrative seats on the boards of Chinese companies, as a clampdown on top government officials holding paid corporate positions spreads into the education sector.
Until recently, university professors at state universities had thought themselves exempt from a 2013 ban on high-level government officials and Communist Party members holding corporate jobs, a restriction installed as part of the nation’s anti-corruption drive. That changed in November, when the education ministry threatened disciplinary action against higher-ranked academics who fail to register their corporate assignments."



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Business jargon dictionary: Guffpedia

Business jargon dictionary: Guffpedia: "Lucy Kellaway’s dictionary of business jargon and corporate nonsense"



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The lonely thoughts of a long distance runner

http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/what-we-think-about-when-we-run

After three decades of distance running I have realized that I run, mostly in pain, just to experience the handful of occasions when the body seems to be powered by jet engines and does not feel any resistance and the running feels effortless. It is pure bliss, and on those occasions the mind can be free of thoughts. Most of my distance runs involve feelings of pain. I don't run with headphones or mobile devices. At the beginning of my run I usually play music inside my head (songs like Morning has Broken or These are days you remember, music I grew up with). I let my imagination run with me and do role play- during today's run I imagined that I was the captain of an All Blacks team that had just lost a game, and I had to address my teammates. As a distance runner I use my imagination to power me through my pain. Distance running also provides many interactive experiences for a runner- I remember one particular training run where a female runner just blew past me. Being a good runner, my ego hurt far more than my body and I ran as hard as I could to catch her, but I could only see her face before I collapsed and fell down while she continued running. A few days later I saw her face on the cover of a sports magazine- she was in the U.S. Olympic Marathon team.

I liked Ms. Schulz's coverage of the topic, from fiction to non fiction, from Alan Sillitoe to Gardner. It should be added that Tom Courtenay and Michael Redgrave brought "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" to life on the silver screen.

Why do we run?

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2015/jun/18/five-novels-every-runner-should-read

Why do we run? In his book on the subject, Mark Rowlands complains that most books about running reframe this question in terms of what use it has. We run because it keeps us healthy, reduces stress or brings us joy. We run for the satisfaction of a personal best or for the thrill of the race. We run to meet new people, to be part of a team or to impress the opposite sex. All of us will at some point have explained our pastime in such terms. But Rowlands argues that running, at its best, is valuable for what it is in itself, not for what it gives us. In other words, we run just because. And this is an idea that comes naturally to the novelist.

When the reform-school boy in Alan Sillitoe’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner throws away a race against a rival school, he does so not only to deny glory to the institution he detests, but because to win – even to finish – would be to undermine what he’s come to learn is the true value of running. “You had to run, run, run, without knowing why you were running,” he says. “This feeling was the only honesty and realness there was in the world.” For once, he’s doing something that is not done for the sake of something or someone else.

The following five novels are recommended as portraits of a runner’s life, as well as for being forceful reminders that running, at its best, is something we do for its own sake.

The housing pain continues

U.S. ‘Underwater’ Homeowners Increase to 28.6%, Zillow Reports - Businessweek: "The number of U.S. homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth climbed in the third quarter as lenders repossessed fewer houses, Zillow Inc. said.

The share of borrowers with negative equity rose to 28.6 percent, up from 26.8 percent in the second quarter and 23.2 percent a year earlier, the real estate data provider said today. Last quarter’s portion was the biggest since Seattle- based Zillow began tracking the measure in the first quarter of 2009, when 22.3 percent of households were underwater.

The number increased because fewer delinquent properties are being taken over by banks, said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. Banks have slowed the pace of seizures as they negotiate with state attorneys general probing the mishandling of foreclosure documents.

“We still have very high negative equity rates,” Humphries said in an e-mail. “That’s putting extreme pressure on households because temporary job losses translate into foreclosures at much higher rates when the household is in negative equity.”"

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Drill baby Drill, Obama way

Obama to expand drilling off Alaska, in Gulf - Yahoo! Finance: "The Obama administration cautiously offered up more areas in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska's coast to oil and gas drilling Tuesday, but didn't go far enough to satisfy Republicans pushing to greatly expand drilling as a way to create jobs and wean the country off foreign oil.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar unveiled a proposal to hold 15 lease sales for areas in the Gulf of Mexico, including two in the eastern Gulf, and three off Alaska's coast in the time frame from 2012 to 2017. The sales off Alaska, where native groups and environmentalists have objected to drilling, would be the first since 2008. They would be held late in the five-year time frame to allow for scientific evaluations in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, which Interior officials called a "frontier" for drilling. And they would be targeted to avoid areas with cultural and environmental sensitivities, officials said.

"The approach we are taking there is a cautious one," Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said of the Arctic leases. "We are aware of the substantial issues associated with major production.""

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The beginning of the end of "free" public education

In Indiana, Some Buses Stop Shuttling Kids For Free : NPR: "School buses have been disappearing in Indiana in large part because districts can no longer rely on a steady funding stream to pay for them.

As many as a dozen Indiana districts are threatening to cut back on busing.

In Franklin Township, near Indianapolis, the school district is already charging families monthly fees for their kids to ride the school bus. It can all be traced back to property taxes.

Forced To Cut Transportation

Last year, it took Jeff Bennett less than a minute to drive his son to school. On a recent morning, it took him nearly half an hour."

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China sees the fluorescent light

China's move to energy efficient bulbs is a much-needed glimmer of hope | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "China's light bulb moment – a bright idea hovering over its collective head – is a desperately needed glimmer of hope in a world that appears unable to resist its headlong charge into climate darkness.

The commitment by the world's workshop to end the manufacture of wasteful incandescent light bulbs comes on the same day as a record rise in greenhouse gas emissions was revealed, putting global warming ahead of the worst-case scenarios envisaged by the world's scientists. The economy may seem to be barely flickering in the west, but globally it is on full beam.

While switching to compact fluorescent bulbs – 75% more efficient than incandescents – has become unremarkable in some developed nations, the significance of China's move should not be underestimated. Almost 20% of global electricity is used for lighting and the pollution it causes is equivalent to half of all the cars on the world's roads. And we should be hoping for more light in the world in the future. In India alone, 400 million people live without electricity, condemned to darkness when the sun sets."

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The Year of the Mutai

Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai sets course record at NYC Marathon – USATODAY.com: "Mutai finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes, 6 seconds, crushing the previous mark of 2:07:43 set by Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia a decade earlier.
The 30-year-old has established himself as the favorite at next summer's Olympics after two landmark performances this year.
In April, he ran the fastest 26.2 miles in history: 2:03:02 in Boston. It didn't count as a world record because the course is considered too straight and too downhill.
The second- and third-place finishers Sunday also broke the old course record. Fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai (no relation), the London Marathon champ, was 1:22 back. Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia was third.
Dado trailed London Marathon champ Mary Keitany by nearly 2½ minutes at the 15-mile mark but passed her with about a mile left. The 27-year-old Dado won in 2:23:15 — almost a minute better than her previous personal best."

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Mosop mops up the Chicago Marathon

Shobukhova and Mosop Win Chicago Marathon - NYTimes.com: "An estimated 1.7 million spectators watched Shobukhova, who finished in 2 hours 18 minutes 20 seconds, and the other 42,000 runners from 25 countries snake through 29 neighborhoods in the city’s North, West, and South Sides. Moses Mosop of Kenya set a course record in the men’s race with a time of 2:05:37."

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Great Grete

Grete Waitz, Norwegian Marathon Champion, Is Dead at 57 - NYTimes.com: "Grete Waitz, the Norwegian runner who won a record nine New York City Marathons starting with her first in October 1978, died Tuesday in Oslo. She was 57.

Waitz revealed in 2005 that she had cancer, without disclosing details. Her death was confirmed by her husband, Jack Waitz. According to her New York-based lawyer Mike Frankfurt, she died peacefully in her sleep.

Waitz’s nine victories in the New York race is a mark that no woman or man has duplicated. Unassuming and yet fiercely confident, she inspired runners around the world and stayed involved in the running community even as she battled cancer."