missed the weekly 9.2km runs with Choon Hung yesterday and wednesday last week trying to rid the flu from my system. manage to run this morning same distance on treadmill at the gym because of the rain. don't do gym much these days prefering outdoor runs but today just as I was getting out of the house rain started so no choice.
speed was 9.6kmh on my garmin pedometer & 9.5kmh on treadmill but i have given up on speed measures on gym treadmill as can never quite replicate outdoors..when much younger always thought i ran better outdoors probably because tend to pace with other runners but these days don't seem to be true.
checked my garmin record last run was 11.8.2010 so 16 days ago so another long break (last time was when I reward myself with trip to Seoul week after my 31.5.2010 Adidas Sundown 21km 1/2marathon). now 2 hrs after run, no muscle sore so my running posture should be ok and compression tights are working...
my calendar entry said my throat infection started 12.8.2010, so full 2 weeks which guess is my usual recovery time. this time though manage to go for lunches, dinners, meetings and do a bit of work (i think a bit better than previously) on a 70% (couple days) t0 90% capacity (most days)....really hate it health so important just small little flu and already find it most irritating though this time a bit less disruptive..what more if major illness..
anyway age catching on need to listen to body..lets see how it goes but would want to go for another 10km run tomorrow if feeling good...
Friday, August 27, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
cynicism, negativity & cyber propagation
the minority speak loudest and cynicism & negativity get recycled and regurgitated in cyberworld..partisan, whatever the other guy say or do is wrong, unable to share, rejoice & feel proud of their country & people who contributed real effort for betterment of the world & of the human spirit, sport excellence..Obama tried to refocus America & the world "yes you can" but he is being drown out by minority controlled senate & wall street pseudo capitalist vested interest & media..we live in a pluralistic world..democracy is the free market contest of ideas & will prevail...
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
when does a person deserve a crime?
A Singapore student on an exchange program was gang-raped by 3 Nepalese when she went to lan Kawi Fong and got drunk alone in a bar where the rapists worked, and all 3 comments on Asiaone were "she asked for it"..how sad in this day and age, the vocal prevalent belief can be the victim deserve the crime...this is a crime of violence, a woman cannot be safe drinking alone in a Hong Kong bar..however careless or ill-advised or naive, the one thing for sure is she didn't asked for it..if a man got drunk and got robbed or raped, probably nobody would say such horrible things as he asked for it...
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Engelhert Humperdinck 2010 Legacy of Love World Tour
watched Engelhert Humperdinck 2010 Legacy of Love World Tour with Lisa 2 nights ago at Indoor Stadium (as usual) courtesy of Andrew Chee (good friend to have)...
really a relaxed wonderful evening down memory lane in the company of Release Me, The Last Waltz, Spanish Eyes, Quando Quando Quando (remix)..incredible vocals & a witty mind and very good refined classy entertainer, incredible energy at 74 years & great band too....love it..
really a relaxed wonderful evening down memory lane in the company of Release Me, The Last Waltz, Spanish Eyes, Quando Quando Quando (remix)..incredible vocals & a witty mind and very good refined classy entertainer, incredible energy at 74 years & great band too....love it..
Thursday, June 24, 2010
1 night in geylang...
great time out with the boys (chai seng, chong lee, chee hong, boon teck) last evening...
what I read when I googled Sek Wai Sin at Geylang (between Lor 13 & Lor 15) turned out to be accurate enough - pay a lot for wok hei, no price, no menu, no aircon, no service (the last cannot determine as chai seng seems to have one with the owners so the service we got is par excellence, also aircon part no issue as our table is indoor place is decent & quite cool)...
food is good and I want to go back again...we had prawn with kai lan and tofu prawn (signature), and beef kailan=all with fantatic wok hei! the prawn is huge and very fresh. also had steam song fish head (signature)=very good, black chicken soup=good and sweet sour pork=below average. read that bitter gourd pork rib is good, didn't ask as (maybe should ask because) chai seng is paying. damage was $148 for 5, not exactly cheap for daipaidong but then most dishes are better than some restaurants..problem with such places is food variety looks limited and w/o our friend chai seng probably service maybe sucks...
after that we stroll to sims avenue side for durian...$50 for 1 mao shan wan durian (3.5kgx$14/kg=about $2 per seed) not quite my idea of value for money, but then fun night out can't count every cent, just eat & be happy.. durian was nice but really not that great..chee hong also ordered a 1x$16/kg (forgot name sounds something like XO 666..)...that one actually had many tiny seeds, not bitter enough and maybe not bad afterall...
sad to hear from CH that BT's brother Boon Siong passed away from cancer (though I expected that having heard from BT >1month back that he was nearing the end). we are all at the age where transient makes a deeper impression, we get more philosophical & start to hear more of such news from amongst friends but I was playing my 1st majong game with BS just before CNY=that was just 4-5 months back..
what I read when I googled Sek Wai Sin at Geylang (between Lor 13 & Lor 15) turned out to be accurate enough - pay a lot for wok hei, no price, no menu, no aircon, no service (the last cannot determine as chai seng seems to have one with the owners so the service we got is par excellence, also aircon part no issue as our table is indoor place is decent & quite cool)...
food is good and I want to go back again...we had prawn with kai lan and tofu prawn (signature), and beef kailan=all with fantatic wok hei! the prawn is huge and very fresh. also had steam song fish head (signature)=very good, black chicken soup=good and sweet sour pork=below average. read that bitter gourd pork rib is good, didn't ask as (maybe should ask because) chai seng is paying. damage was $148 for 5, not exactly cheap for daipaidong but then most dishes are better than some restaurants..problem with such places is food variety looks limited and w/o our friend chai seng probably service maybe sucks...
after that we stroll to sims avenue side for durian...$50 for 1 mao shan wan durian (3.5kgx$14/kg=about $2 per seed) not quite my idea of value for money, but then fun night out can't count every cent, just eat & be happy.. durian was nice but really not that great..chee hong also ordered a 1x$16/kg (forgot name sounds something like XO 666..)...that one actually had many tiny seeds, not bitter enough and maybe not bad afterall...
sad to hear from CH that BT's brother Boon Siong passed away from cancer (though I expected that having heard from BT >1month back that he was nearing the end). we are all at the age where transient makes a deeper impression, we get more philosophical & start to hear more of such news from amongst friends but I was playing my 1st majong game with BS just before CNY=that was just 4-5 months back..
Thursday, June 10, 2010
lifestyle runner
had my LSD run (long slow distance run, NOT of the euphoric out-of-body I am god kind) this morning. managed 10km@9.02kmh just below 1hr6mins. this after a week w/o exercise and piling on sinful (meaning heavenly) food in Seoul..heartbeat really a bit high at 160bpm average with last lap at 165bpm (still for my recent 1/2 marathon my heartbeat was higher at 161bpm average running for 2hr 33 mins over 21km at just 8kmh)..I know I can get it down as did 14km before at 154bpm average at 9.1kmh...
didn't use my compression apparel. put on the cheaper Adidas tights instead, recovery was good and now 5 hrs after running no DOMS (delayed onset muscle sore) so I must be doing things right!
the chirunning by Danny Dreyer is really good. every serious runner should just go borrow from library and read it (http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?resultsScreen+26285+1+5+0)
anyway it teaches you the key principles of effortless running-
(1)slight lean (not bent) forward head-body-feet aligned so that your footfall will NOT be ahead of the head position. this helps to avoid heelstriking which creates impact resistance at every step, thus promotes midstriking..
(2)relax knee, calf, ankles, let feet fall back on every step (your feet just skimming the road surface..) instead of lifting & heelstrike (which happens if your footfall is ahead of your head position). this lets core muscles hold up the body weight put less effort on leg muscles, hip swing like pendulum thighs propel run aided by gravity & momentum from slight leaning forward lower leg hang loose - ie as little effort and weight on lower leg as possible makes a more efficient pendulum (don't you know nigerian runners have really hugh thighs and thin calf)..
normal hardcore power running relies on training leg muscles and lapping up miles. with chirunning apparently you can soak up less miles in training. important thing is form focus ie posture and principles of using core muscles to hold body and thigh muscles to propel run, slight forward lean & midstriking to avoid impact resistance (and impact on knee) and as little effort and weight on lower leg as possible for efficient pendulum swing and you (sort of) can run forever...
think I am starting to get it a little bit...my target lifestyle running=2x10km, 1x14km per week..
didn't use my compression apparel. put on the cheaper Adidas tights instead, recovery was good and now 5 hrs after running no DOMS (delayed onset muscle sore) so I must be doing things right!
the chirunning by Danny Dreyer is really good. every serious runner should just go borrow from library and read it (http://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?resultsScreen+26285+1+5+0)
anyway it teaches you the key principles of effortless running-
(1)slight lean (not bent) forward head-body-feet aligned so that your footfall will NOT be ahead of the head position. this helps to avoid heelstriking which creates impact resistance at every step, thus promotes midstriking..
(2)relax knee, calf, ankles, let feet fall back on every step (your feet just skimming the road surface..) instead of lifting & heelstrike (which happens if your footfall is ahead of your head position). this lets core muscles hold up the body weight put less effort on leg muscles, hip swing like pendulum thighs propel run aided by gravity & momentum from slight leaning forward lower leg hang loose - ie as little effort and weight on lower leg as possible makes a more efficient pendulum (don't you know nigerian runners have really hugh thighs and thin calf)..
normal hardcore power running relies on training leg muscles and lapping up miles. with chirunning apparently you can soak up less miles in training. important thing is form focus ie posture and principles of using core muscles to hold body and thigh muscles to propel run, slight forward lean & midstriking to avoid impact resistance (and impact on knee) and as little effort and weight on lower leg as possible for efficient pendulum swing and you (sort of) can run forever...
think I am starting to get it a little bit...my target lifestyle running=2x10km, 1x14km per week..
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
in support of Obama's Nobel Peace Prize
I think Obama more than deserved the Nobel Peace Prize..the silent majority maybe no match for the vocal media minority including BT's Vikram Kanna who shared my admiration for Obama..it is easy to jump on the media conventional wisdom bandwagon instead of appreciating Nobel award panel's insight and vision, and its true that there are many hard toiling deserving winners w/o Obama's charm and clout..but hey there is only 1 Nobel Peach Prize a year and Obama's impact and contribution is more than deserving...maybe Martin Luther King (1964) or even Nelson Mandela (1993) is more transformative...but can you imagine what USA and the world would be like if George Bush or John McCain (decent genuine folk he maybe) were US president..
Obama's impact is if anything no less than Mohammed Yunus (2006) and Medecins sans Frontier ('doctors without borders')(1999) and most certainly far more than Al Gore (2007)..
Obama team have accomplished in 9+ months no recent US or world leader have done in decades..Geithner, working without senate confirmed assistant secretaries and staffers, turn around Wall Street, saved the world financial market from unseemly collapse and the livelihood of millions...got GM & Chrysler in and out of bankruptcy saving millions of jobs...more importantly Obama got a whole leaderless generation in USA and worldwide to believe again "yes, I can"...his election and inauguration moved the entire world...conservatives who attacked Obama team on every solution that have proven to work beautifully and branded TARP, stimulus, healthcare, consumer protection as socialist, big government, nationalisation etc are simply living in the past (where George Bush surrounded by crooks and cronies ruled by lies, corruption and ineptitude) and so faithless..but Obama generation can believe again, are motivated and know the difference between talk and action...no drama Obama never claims he can solve all the problems (having inherited 2 wars, a planet in peril and financial collapse) in 1 year or even one term, but looking at the intelligent, pragmatic, problem solving doer team he gathered who solve the financial crisis as volunteers while awaiting senate confirmation, we have confidence he is getting there - climate change, Afghanistan, Iraq, ME, Iran, North Korea..these are not the same incompetent above the law fat cats (Bush cronies) who still defends torture, waterboarding, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib (Cheney), who attacked Iraq based on lies and brought untold miseries for generations to those american and Iraqi families who suffer losses of loved ones for no reasons (Rumsfeld) etc...
we can criticise the Nobel Peace prize as too early if it is awarded for lifetime devotion rather than size of impact (and so Obama and his advisors are themselves surprised), but while Obama team will need maybe 1 or 2 terms to bring the planet in peril from the brink of self destruction, he can be credited with triggering the process (like Colin Powell said Obama is transformative and game changing and a product of the times - without the disastrous and divisive Bush years there maybe no Obama phenomenon) and so in my humble opinion the Nobel Peace Prize has no more deserving recepient...and Mohamed Yunus, doctors without borders and Al Gore (despite their more than magnificient contributions) are of no comparison...
Obama's impact is if anything no less than Mohammed Yunus (2006) and Medecins sans Frontier ('doctors without borders')(1999) and most certainly far more than Al Gore (2007)..
Obama team have accomplished in 9+ months no recent US or world leader have done in decades..Geithner, working without senate confirmed assistant secretaries and staffers, turn around Wall Street, saved the world financial market from unseemly collapse and the livelihood of millions...got GM & Chrysler in and out of bankruptcy saving millions of jobs...more importantly Obama got a whole leaderless generation in USA and worldwide to believe again "yes, I can"...his election and inauguration moved the entire world...conservatives who attacked Obama team on every solution that have proven to work beautifully and branded TARP, stimulus, healthcare, consumer protection as socialist, big government, nationalisation etc are simply living in the past (where George Bush surrounded by crooks and cronies ruled by lies, corruption and ineptitude) and so faithless..but Obama generation can believe again, are motivated and know the difference between talk and action...no drama Obama never claims he can solve all the problems (having inherited 2 wars, a planet in peril and financial collapse) in 1 year or even one term, but looking at the intelligent, pragmatic, problem solving doer team he gathered who solve the financial crisis as volunteers while awaiting senate confirmation, we have confidence he is getting there - climate change, Afghanistan, Iraq, ME, Iran, North Korea..these are not the same incompetent above the law fat cats (Bush cronies) who still defends torture, waterboarding, Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib (Cheney), who attacked Iraq based on lies and brought untold miseries for generations to those american and Iraqi families who suffer losses of loved ones for no reasons (Rumsfeld) etc...
we can criticise the Nobel Peace prize as too early if it is awarded for lifetime devotion rather than size of impact (and so Obama and his advisors are themselves surprised), but while Obama team will need maybe 1 or 2 terms to bring the planet in peril from the brink of self destruction, he can be credited with triggering the process (like Colin Powell said Obama is transformative and game changing and a product of the times - without the disastrous and divisive Bush years there maybe no Obama phenomenon) and so in my humble opinion the Nobel Peace Prize has no more deserving recepient...and Mohamed Yunus, doctors without borders and Al Gore (despite their more than magnificient contributions) are of no comparison...
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Two Sides of Dual-Class Shares
........Hollinger International presents a good example of the negative effects of dual-class shares. Former CEO Conrad Black controlled all of the company's class-B shares, which gave him 30% of the equity and 73% of the voting power. He ran the company as if he were the sole owner, exacting huge management fees, consulting payments, and personal dividends. Hollinger's board of directors was filled with Black's friends who were unlikely to forcefully oppose his authority. Holders of publicly traded shares of Hollinger had almost no power to make any decisions in terms of executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions, board construction poison pills, or anything else for that matter. Hollinger's financial and share performance suffered under Black's control.
Academic research offers strong evidence that dual-class share structures hinder corporate performance. A Wharton School and Harvard Business School study shows that while large ownership stakes in managers' hands tend to improve corporate performance, heavy voting control by insiders weakens it. Shareholders with super-voting rights are reluctant to raise cash by selling additional shares--that could dilute these shareholders' influence. The study also shows that dual-class companies tend to be burdened with more debt than single-class companies. Even worse, dual-class stocks tend to under-perform the stock market.
Conclusion
Not every dual-class company is destined to perform poorly--Berkshire Hathaway, for one, has consistently delivered great fundamentals and shareholder value. Controlling shareholders normally have an interest in maintaining a good reputation with investors. Insofar as family members wield voting power, they have an emotional incentive to vote in a manner that enhances performance. All the same, investors should keep in mind the effects of dual-class ownership on company fundamentals.
by Ben McClure
Academic research offers strong evidence that dual-class share structures hinder corporate performance. A Wharton School and Harvard Business School study shows that while large ownership stakes in managers' hands tend to improve corporate performance, heavy voting control by insiders weakens it. Shareholders with super-voting rights are reluctant to raise cash by selling additional shares--that could dilute these shareholders' influence. The study also shows that dual-class companies tend to be burdened with more debt than single-class companies. Even worse, dual-class stocks tend to under-perform the stock market.
Conclusion
Not every dual-class company is destined to perform poorly--Berkshire Hathaway, for one, has consistently delivered great fundamentals and shareholder value. Controlling shareholders normally have an interest in maintaining a good reputation with investors. Insofar as family members wield voting power, they have an emotional incentive to vote in a manner that enhances performance. All the same, investors should keep in mind the effects of dual-class ownership on company fundamentals.
by Ben McClure
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