Cheolwon

I'm sitting at a computer that has been set up right beside the reception in the hotel we're staying in.
Today has been unbearably hot.

The highlight of today was swimming in the reservoir.
It's 8:33pm and still extremely sticky and warm.
I'd like to finish this race, and if it is very hot, I'll just take it easy and enjoy it. Maybe get off my bike and swim in a nearby stream if the opportunity presents itself.

If it is hot enough to melt tar, I think I am just gonna sit out the run in the fountains around the finish.
Just had dinner now, and met an American, Jason, who is also doing the Ironman in Jeju. Will be good if we can do a portion of the race together tomorrow.

I've taken quite a few photos. Will post them tomorrow at some stage.

Ice...PLEEEEEEAAASSE!

Perfect time trial means building entire day around one hour

By CHRIS CARMICHAEL, For The Associated Press July 22, 2005

Imagine building your entire day around one hour. One hour in which only a perfect performance will be considered successful. The final test in Lance Armstrong's quest to win a seventh Tour de France comes in Saturday's Stage 20 individual time trial, and after 14 years as a professional cyclist, it comes down to one perfect hour. An individual time trial can be the loneliest hour of a cyclist's life. While most cycling events involve a pack of riders, you're all by yourself during the individual time trial. There are no teammates to call on for help and no one to draft behind. There's a car following you, but the people in it can't give you food or water. It's just you against the clock, fastest man wins.

Lance Armstrong excels in this discipline. To be successful in what's referred to as ``the race of truth,'' you have to have the ability to produce a massive amount of power and hold that intensity for 60-80 minutes. To win Saturday, Lance will have to average about 30-31 mph for about 72-74 minutes. To put that in perspective, the average cyclist can sustain 30-31 mph for about three minutes. In order to win an individual time trial in the Tour de France, Lance seeks perfection. It's not enough to be perfect on the bike; everything he does from the moment he wakes up has an impact on his performance.

The day starts at about 8:30 a.m. Riders don't need to wake up exceedingly early because the daily stages are scheduled so they finish around 5:00 p.m. The whole team eats breakfast together at about 9:00 a.m. The meal consists of whole grain cereals, dark breads, omelets, fruit, and often potatoes or rice. It is quite high in carbohydrates because the body depletes about 80 percent of its carbohydrate stores in the liver overnight.

After breakfast, Lance and his teammates will go out on the road for a short spin. Lance will ride his time trial bike for about 25-30 miles to get comfortable on the bike and stretch his legs. He hasn't been on this very specific machine for more than two weeks, and it's good to get reacquainted with it in the morning before competing in the afternoon. Once he gets back from his morning ride at about 10:00 a.m.-10:30 a.m., Lance will talk with the mechanics about the bike and possibly make some slight adjustments. He'll get a shower and probably a quick massage to keep his legs and back supple and loose, and then he'll relax until lunch.

Lance will eat his last substantial meal about two and a half hours before his start time. As the race leader, Lance will be the last rider to roll out of the start house, so his start time will be late, probably around 4:22 p.m. The meal will be mostly carbohydrates because that's the primary fuel he'll be using to power his high intensity effort. He'll eat a few cups of a light pasta dish; he won't want anything that will sit heavily in his stomach. He'll also eat some whole grain bread, fruit, and maybe some salad.

There is a rule in cycling that the shorter an event, the longer the warmup. For long road stages, riders barely warm up at all. Lance warms up for about 50 minutes before long individual time trials, and he'll arrive at the race site about 90 minutes before his start time to get ready and start warming up. While Lance changes clothes in the team bus, his time trial bike will be put on a stationary trainer outside. Some of his teammates will be there warming up for their own time trials, and the others will already be on the course. Lance's 50-minute warmup is not just a simple spin to loosen up. To win a time trial, you have to be ready to ride at maximum speed from the moment you leave the start house. You have to prepare your body, otherwise the shock of going from rest to maximum effort will significantly harm your performance. Lance's warmup is designed to wake a sleeping giant. He has to gradually activate his aerobic engine, and then increase intensity to progressively activate the energy systems that power successively harder efforts. Lance goes hard in his warmup, and actually goes above the effort level he reaches during competition. He needs to kick-start the mechanisms that control the production of energy and metabolic byproducts when exercising at very high intensities. About 10 minutes before his start time, Lance wraps up his warmup, eats a PowerGel and tucks another under the leg of his skinsuit. His bike is removed from the stationary trainer, checked over by the mechanic, and Lance heads for the start house.

Once Lance looks down the ramp to the road ahead, all of the hours since he woke up melt away. He sits still on his bike, both feet secured onto his pedals while someone holds him upright by the back of his seat. The starter finally begins the countdown. His fingers count down the final five seconds to Lance's start time, and then his hand flattens and extends out over the ramp. It's time to go.

For the next hour and change, Lance will ride as hard and fast as his body and physics will allow. Though he'll burn more than 1500 calories during the effort and sweat out about two liters of fluid, he'll only consume one 100-calorie PowerGel and one 500-millileter bottle of fluid.

There's no time for more food and nowhere to carry more fluid. Moreover, there's no room for error. There can be no stiff back from a poor night's sleep, nor an empty or upset stomach from a bad or incorrectly-scheduled meal, or mechanical problems with the bike or insufficient power from an inadequate warmup. Perfect rides come from perfect preparation, and there's no one who has mastered the art and science of preparation the way Lance Armstrong has.

36 C

My software provides up to the minute news and weather data. Today is predicted to be 36 degrees celcius. I went out at 10:30 am to have my Stratos bars fitted to my bike and the STR's removed for tomorrow's triathlon. At 10:30am it was already cooking. I have to fetch my bike at 1pm from the Cannondale Shop and will be carrying a bag for the trip. Going to be a very sweaty trip from my blue cool apartment to the club car's aircon.

I saw in the newspaper that Spain is also having its hottest and dryest season since historical records began...

Oil shocks come quickly, not giving people time to plan for oil substitutes. There won't be time to plant energy crops and wait around ten years for them to grow. There will hardly be time to wait for the ethanol plants to be constructed.

So here's how the next oil shock might play out in the woods: After the short-term rationing and associated chaos, we'll see ethanol plants under construction everywhere except in the deserts. But while they're being built, much wood will be cut for home heating and for hastily converted oil-fired power plants. Government forestry agencies will make TV ads and booklets extolling the virtues of clearcutting for energy supplies and wildlife. They'll also tell us that our forests are biologically over-mature and in need of "rejuvenation."

Foresters and loggers will probably get extra fuel rations. If the situation gets really bad, they might be conscripted in some fashion to serve the national interests by "producing" more cellulose feedstocks to feed the ethanol plants. Landowners may see their forests condemned by the state for the same purpose. Of course the government would turn over appropriated lands to Exxon-Mobil-BP-Texaco for actual "management" of the biomass resource.

On the positive side, we'll finally get mandatory paper recycling because most of the pulpwood needed for making paper will now go for ethanol. We'll see public money spent on public transportation. There will be lots more bicycles and power-assisted bicycles on the road. Fuel cells will be specially designed to run on ethanol. There will be national campaigns for people to go vegetarian so that land devoted to pasturage and grain production for livestock can be converted to energy crops.

Prices for photovoltaic (PV) panels will come down and will be installed on many roofs. Large PV arrays will be installed in sunny, desert areas. Windmill farms will pop up wherever there's enough steady wind. If huge efforts are made in energy efficiency at the same time, there might be enough solar and wind electricity to satisfy most residential and commercial demand. Industrial demand will be another matter.

Meanwhile, forests will keep disappearing into the maws of chippers for ethanol feedstock production. Then at some point it will become clear that we face a critical choice: our forests or our cars? It will still be years before all the energy crop plantings will be ready to harvest. For most people this will be a very difficult choice. Oil and car company propaganda won't make matters easier.

We can only hope that Gaia won't get too perturbed with all this, plus all our other crimes against her, and just decide to shut us all down by means of massive forest fires, insect infestations, diseases and diebacks induced by climate change. We'll have to hope that the same fate doesn't befall the energy crops. And we'll have to hope that we don't get a climate "flip-flop" back towards glacial conditions just when we're busy at adapting to life without fossil fuels. The timing would be just too much.

Billabong Day

Today was 34 degrees Celcius, and tomorrow is supposed to be a sweltering 36C. Oh, I've just rechecked and it's back to 33C. Sun Young told me today was the hottest day so far this summer. It actually didn't feel too bad. I went to school dressed for the beach - wore my Billabong shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals and a cap. Got the aircons whirring and had my ice coffee ready right off the bat. I ate 3 or 4 ice cool nectarines for lunch - delicious.

It was a very easy day at school. Only a third of the students were present. Most of them are off enjoying their vacations. I handed out a lot of puzzles and crosswords and was pleased to see very high levels of concentration and interest. I think it's a fact moany teachers forget, or avoid: children (and adults) learn best playing games/having fun. It's a sad reality that we adults get out of the habit of playing games.

After school I missed the 3300 bus by about 10 seconds, and had to wait about 16 minutes for the next one. Usually the wait is 4 or 5 minutes.
Sun Young drove to Aroi where we had dinner and an English lesson. After a few minutes Ryan and Aaron arrived. Aaron has had a hectic time in the States. He contracted CMV, and an extended stay in hospital has saddled him with a huge bill. The equivalent, I think he said, of W15 million. That's really tough.
He has a buddy in San Diego, so we gave Aaron Sun Young's email so that they could get in touch when Sun Young goes there for her medical conference.
We left Aroi at 22:00, and Sun Yougn very generously paid for the meal. My share would have been W14 500, which is roughly twice as much as my 'donation' earlier in the day for a newspaper (which, ironically, I gave to Sun Young). I felt there was an odd sense of humor filling the shivering heatwaves around me today.

I am so glad it's weekend. Next week is just 2 days work before another week long break.

'I saw it, he's dead'

London - Police shot and killed a man at a London subway station on Friday, a day after the city was hit by its second wave of terror attacks in two weeks.

The details of the shooting at Stockwell station in south London were not immediately clear, but media reports said he was a suspected bomber.

Passengers said a man, described as South Asian, ran onto a train. Witnesses said police chased him, he tripped, and police then shot him.

"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He's dead. Five shots. He's dead," witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corporation. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."

Color...No, Terror by Numbers?

Anyone notice that London's terror attacks occurred on 7/7? Has a similar ring to it as 9/11 doesn't it?

Yuan news 'great for SA'

By: Helmo Preuss

Johannesburg - The move on Thursday by the People's Bank of China (PBC) to remove the decade-old US dollar-yuan peg is great news for South Africa, as it will encourage even more South African exports of raw materials to China, without necessarily leading to a stronger rand, analysts said.
The main proviso is that South Africa gets its logistics chain management up to the standards of its competitors; otherwise all the extra demand engendered by the yuan revaluation will go to countries such as Australia and Brazil.

That is one of the reasons why Maria Ramos was appointed chief executive officer of transport utility Transnet, as Transnet is the key player in the logistics chain.

Railway derailments, stacker malfunctions, lack of rolling stock, the unavailability of cranes for the port of Ngqura, these are all completely unacceptable and as bad as dropped passes in a Tri-Nations match.

The halftime score line was not very impressive, as bulk export volumes declined by 2.9% year-on-year (y/y) in June to only 9.194 million tons after a respectable performance of 10.24 million tons shipped in May.

Who dropped the pass?

Chinese imports on the other hand grew by 15.1% y/y in June, which is a performance that South African exporters should at least have matched.

Rio Tinto for instance boosted its second quarter iron ore output from its Australian mines by 15% y/y to over 32 million tons, whereas Kumba will be lucky to export that much in a full year.

Apart from boosting demand for South African exports, the Chinese revaluation will also help in "burden-sharing" of the adjustment to global imbalances.

Over the past three years, the burden of currency adjustment to the US dollar has been carried by Europe and the so-called "commodity currencies", which includes South Africa.

During this time, the US trade-weighted dollar has depreciated by some 10% with no effect on the burgeoning US foreign trade deficit, which already exceeds 6% of gross domestic product.

The "free-floating" currencies have appreciated by some 30% against the US dollar, but the Asian and Middle Eastern currencies, which account for around two-thirds of the US foreign trade deficit, have kept to their pegs, accumulating massive foreign exchange reserves and intervening to keep their currencies "weak".

In China's case, their foreign exchange reserves are the world's second largest at over US$710bn, while Japan, which has the world's largest, is equally under pressure to allow its currency to find its own value without Bank of Japan purchases of US dollars.

In the fourth quarter 2004, the rand went to its strongest level real trade-weighted value this century, as real exports grew by 9.3% y/y.

This is in marked contrast to the fourth quarter 2001, when real exports plummeted by 8.0% y/y, the weakest y/y change in exports this century, resulting in a record weak rand.

Now that Asian - Middle Eastern currencies such as the Saudi Arabian riyal are unlikely to abandon their decades-old peg to the US dollar - currencies will share some of the burden of global currency re-alignment, it means that although South African real export growth could exceed last year's performance, the rand need not appreciate as much.

43 10 Done, 20 Weeks Remaining

Had quite a productive morning. While the last 3 Tour De France stages were downloading, I got some educational material, with the focus on fun, off the net. Discovery has some useful stuff, like puzzlemakers,crosswords, lateral thinking brainteasers for kids etc. Made some massive puzzles and other games since today the Public Schools break up for the holiday.

Fixed up Sun Young's Abstract which is hectic medical jargon, and posted some articles that show a clear and present danger, in terms of both H5N1 and Climate Change. I saw a documentary done by National Geographic which reveals new insights in the complicated Theory of Weather and Climate. It's fair to say that this documentary disturbed me as much as The End of Suburbia did.

Also did all the washing and cleaning, then slipped out into the oven to pay my phone bill across the road. Last month it was over W60 000, this month it is W48 000, with at least W43 000 being internet charges. Shows you how little I make local calls from home.

Then went to the bank to pay my electricity bill. Just over W30 000. I am expecting a shock when I get the next one as I have been putting the aircon through its paces. Day and night. Turn it off, and my apartment rapidly transforms into a sauna. I turn it off when I go out, and when I get back the thermometer reads around 28 degrees.
Feels like I am sitting in a sauna right now...at school. Sweat is literally streaming down the back of my neck.

Everything went quite smoothly until I went to buy a newspaper in Madu subway. Maybe reality was different to how I remember it. I remember grudgingly parting with my W500 coin (needed for the bus), and then right after paying I pulled out another W1000 note and asked for change (2xw500 coins). The woman insisted on taking that as payment for the paper, and when I tried to explain I had already paid she called her son over. Since I was running pecariously close to being late, I thought stuff it, and grabbed the W500 coin I'd placed with the opther 2 W100 coins, between the sweets (which I think, thinking back, she probably hadn't noticed). Now I think she thought I'd stolen her money, so sent her son after me. I was feeling huffy, having paid W1200 for a W700 newspaper.

On the stairwell I heard her son shouting and running after me. Now I realised they clearly thought I'd taken the newspaper, that I'd stolen it. This annoyed me even more, because I was the one who'd lost money. I quickly whipped out my wallet, trying to dispel the myth that all foreigners are criminals, and intended to do away with whatever money they thought I owed with another W1000. The irony is, I had a W1000 in my hand, and one W500 coin, but I had to hold on to these for the bus. So when I opened my wallet, all I had was a wad of W10 000 notes, and one sweaty W5000 that I'd discovered in my pocket in the bank.
So I stuffed a W5000 into his hand.
Then, amazed at myself, and going slightly crazy at the same time, ran up the escalator, and now the guy pursued me again.
At the top of the escalator I tried to explain, using actions, exactly how I had made the purchase. Except I lacked W200 in coins. Exasperated, I left him with a total booty of W6200 (for a W700 newspaper).

Now, I'm not sure why I didn't just leave the newspaper. It wasn't as though I really really wanted it. And ironically, I'd already read most of the Herald's stories online this morning anyway. Crazy!

The good news is I am 1/3rd of the way through my time here. I've worked May, June and half of July, and have 5 months to go if we include the first part of December. And after August it will just get cooler and more pleasant. I'm sure during the last third time is really going to fly.

I'm going to Cheolwon tomorrow to do this half Ironman, but if it is hot like today, I won't even start the run. This week also seems to have raced by. Hopefully I'll do the same on Sunday.

London witness came face-to-face with suspected bomber

LONDON (AFP) - A businessman described how he came face-to-face with one of the suspected attackers who exploded bombs in London, telling a newspaper the man seemed have been a would-be suicide attacker who was dazed when his device failed to explode properly.

Abisha Moyo, a Zimbabwe-born business analyst, told the Daily Mail newspaper that he was on a subway train near Shepherd's Bush station in west London when the incident happened on Thursday lunchtime.

Four separate small explosive devices are thought to have gone off, three exploding almost simultaneously on London Underground trains and one about an hour later on a bus.

Unlike the near-identical attacks two weeks earlier when 56 people were killed, there were no injuries, leading terrorism experts to say that perhaps only the bomb detonators went off, not the main charges.

Moyo, 28, said he was talking on his mobile phone when he was startled by a noise like a pistol shot inside the train carriage.

"I turned around and there was a man lying on the ground with his arms outstretched in a Jesus Christ position, lying on top of a medium-sized black and green rucksack, face up," he told the paper.

"He had his eyes shut and there was a puff of smoke coming from the bag. Some girls started screaming, the emergency cable was pulled and everyone started running away from him towards the front of the train," he said.

"I wasn't sure what had happened to him and thought he might have been shot. I went up to him and said: 'Are you all right mate?' But he just ignored me and kept his eyes shut," Moyo said.

The man appeared to be aged about 19 or 20, looked to be of mixed race and was clean shaven and dressed smartly in jeans, a navy blue T-shirt and a baseball cap, Moyo said.

"The rucksack was ripped at the bottom, with some sort of muslin showing and some gooey lard coming out of it. I could see what looked like a pressurised canister or tube and there was a strong smell of vinegar," he said.

The businessman said he then moved to the next carriage, at which point the man sat up.

"He looked dazed and confused and very shaken. He sat down near his rucksack for five or six seconds and then came over to where we were, leaving his rucksack and cap behind.

"He sat down in our carriage very briefly and then walked back again. As he did, I could see some wire sticking out of his T-shirt, it looked a bit like the wire for some headphones, but I could see the exposed copper at the end.

"It was then it hit me and I thought: 'Oh my god, he's a suicide bomber.'"

The suspected bomber abandoned his rucksack and leapt from the stationary train onto the tracks, where he started walking away.

Moyo said he was going to follow him but opted not to when fellow passengers said the man might have been armed.

Tour Ends Sunday

Ullrich, who has three second-place finishes behind Armstrong, said: ``We tried everything. But Lance is so strong, just like last year. We tried to attack him, but you have to accept he is the strongest. The way he rides, the way his team rides. He deserves it.''

"My aim is obviously to finish third," Ullrich said after lopping 37 seconds off the gap which separates him from Rasmussen in Thursday's 18th stage from Albi to Mende.

With the gap now down to one minute and 12 seconds, Ullrich said: "I'm ready to fight for this. Rasmussen is a good rider but I think I can get him."

Ullrich, a time trial specialist, is particularly looking forward to Saturday's 55.5 km individual time trial around St Etienne.

"I took about two minutes off him in the opening time trial over 19 kilometres. I feel much better now as I have recovered from my two crashes," he said.

Armstrong came into this Tour as hungry and as well-prepared as ever, quickly silencing doubters who questioned his will and ability to win again at age 33. He distanced his rivals from the opening time trial and then built on his lead in the mountains.

``It's been smooth, smoother than I expected,'' said Armstrong. ``There's never really been a true panic within the team, within myself.''

Asked how he has managed to stay so focused for seven years, he replied: ``A love for the event and a hatred for losing the event.''

``I learned in 1999 that this race is bigger than any, greater than any,'' he added. ``I also learned what it's like to win it ... and how much happiness and joy it brings to myself and to an entire program and to a country really of non-cycling fans.''

On Saturday we'll see a Time Trial. Lance is the odds on favorite to win that penultimate stage, and watch Ullrich try to gain time on Rasmussen and get a podium place in Paris.

Note: the bridge in one of the images below is the world's tallest bridge, near Millau.

Kia Morning named best economic car in Germany

Kia Motors Corp.'s compact Morning, called the Picanto abroad, was named the most economical car by a major drivers' club in Germany.

Korea's No. 2 automaker Kia said yesterday its European-style compact claimed first place in the annual economy test by the Allegmeiner Deutscher Automobile Club where 5,400 models are rated.

ADAC, Germany's biggest auto drivers' club with 15 million members, evaluates a car's economy by computing the maintenance costs - purchase price, fuel, repairs, taxes and insurance - after the car has been driven 15,000 kilometers.

Kia's Picanto topped the list with 30 euro cents per kilometer maintenance cost. It was followed by two Japanese models, Daihatsu's Cuore and Suzuki's Alto.

"The Picanto, with its European design, roomy interior and high-quality features and performance, was strategically designed to target the European market," said Jean-Charles Lievens, senior executive vice president of Kia's European arm.

"Along with its style and economy, the Picanto's popularity is expected to lift Kia's 'exciting & enabling' brand image in Europe."

About 38 percent of Germany's drivers belong to the Allegmeiner Deutscher Automobile Club which also provides auto information to European consumers via a journal titled ADAC Motorwelt.

Since its launch in Europe last year, the Picanto was named the best compact vehicle, outdoing the Volkswagen Polo and Citroen C2 by local auto magazines.

Nearly 102,000 units of the Korean car have been sold in Europe, including 59,000 sold last year. Kia Motors hopes to sell 86,000 Picantos in Europe this year, up 47 percent from 2004.

(sophie@heraldm.com)

By Kim So-hyun

What changes can we anticipate for our climate?

The graph above includes data from the Nature paper, plus data from other studies referenced below. Notice how CO2 concentration rises vertically at the end of the time series. The increase appears vertical because of the large time scale, but it actually occurs over the past 150 years, which corresponds to the age of fossil fuels (the modern industrial age). Notice too that there hasn't been a corresponding increase in temperature during this time period. This is probably due to the ability of the oceans to function as a heat sink, and thereby delay the increase in atmospheric temperatures. However, there are recent indications that the oceans are now warming, which will reduce their ability to act as a heat sink.

Thus we seem to be headed for some very large climate changes. Temperatures could increase rapidly, and then decrease just as rapidly--as they have repeatedly over the past 420,000 years. Another possibility is that there will be so much GTGs in the atmosphere that they will actually override historical patterns of thermohaline circulation and climate change. It's noteworthy in this context that the current atmospheric methane level is about 230% of its pre-industrial maximum (contrasted with CO2 being about 130% of its pre-industrial maximum).

Given all the new ice core data, what changes can we anticipate for our climate? If CO2 has increased over the past 150 years as much as it normally increases over thousands of years leading up to an interglacial phase (about 80 ppmv), then we could expect as much as a corresponding 10-12C increase in temperature.

It seems the northern hemisphere is affected more by global temperature changes than the southern hemisphere. This could be explained by the fact that the North Polar sea ice is much thinner and much less extensive than the South Polar continental ice, and is therefore much more susceptible to melting under warm conditions, thereby precipitating shifts or shutdowns in the thermohaline circulation. The mass of North Polar sea ice has thinned by at least 50% in just the past 30 years.

Research also indicates that a large variation in climate is likely to occur over a relatively short period of time. It is a Tipping Point scenario, where small fluctuations beyond a certain trigger point lead to a runaway effect.
For further reading on this subject, go to: http://www.daviesand.com/Choices/Precautionary_Planning/
New_Data/

Coming to a Cinema Near You

CHINA - The latest boxun report describes 10 strains of H5N1 circulating in China. Eight of the ten have some evidence for human infections, but there is no direct independent confirmation of the data. The data suggest that the 2005 pandemic is well underway and a wide range of catastrophic events will continue to make news. The report also suggests H5N1 in China is diverse and evolving, expanding a trend that will likely culminate in an event that may make the 1918 flu pandemic look tame. Although the specifics of the report are not directly confirmed by third parties, the actions of China and the sequences of the H5N1 emerging from China, strongly support the descriptions of the strains in the boxun reports.

BBC News - 20th July 2005
Experts debate bird flu strategy
UK - The best way to combat a major outbreak of bird flu in humans will be discussed by experts in London. The World Health Organization says a pandemic of bird flu is inevitable and could cause 50,000 deaths in the UK. It has warned that efforts to contain the spread of the current strain of the virus circulating in Asia have not been successful.

People's Daily Online - 12th July 2005
Bird flu becomes endemic in Thailand: official
The latest outbreak of avian influenza found in central Thailand showed the disease had become endemic in the region, said an official...

Latest updates: http://www.thepoultrysite.com/
LatestNews/Default.asp?AREA=LatestNews&Display=6187

How high do you rate the risk?

Indonesia on alert after bird flu deaths

Karima Anjani

July 22, 2005

Indonesia is preparing 44 hospitals across the archipelago for treatment and detection of bird flu after the country recorded its first deaths from the virus. Agriculture ministry experts have reported sporadic H5N1 virus outbreaks killing more than nine million fowl in 21 provinces, out of a total of 33, across the archipelago since late 2003.

Indonesian policy has favored vaccinating over culling to stop bird flu, due to lack of funds to compensate farmers.

The WHO has questioned the effectiveness of vaccines and say culling is the best weapon.

The virus has already jumped species in Indonesia and was discovered in pigs in May on densely populated Java island.

Pigs can carry human flu viruses, which can combine with avian viruses, swap genes and create virulent strains. But pig farming in the world's most populous Muslim country is not widespread. Islam regards pigs as unclean.REUTERS

Siberian bird flu alarms Russia
BBC News - UK
Bird flu has hit poultry in a Siberian village, in Russia's first case of the disease for more than 15 years. Health staff jump queue for stockpiled bird-flu vaccine
Scotsman - United Kingdom
TWO million doses of bird-flu vaccine are to be stockpiled in Britain, the government announced yesterday...

Work begins on new flu-vaccine factory in Poconos
Miami Herald - FL,USA
SWIFTWATER, Pa. - Work began Wednesday on a new $150 million factory to make flu vaccines... It is possible that at least there's been some human-to-human transmission. But it's really important that human-to-human transmission doesn't automatically mean an epidemic or pandemic.

We've had human-to-human transmission in little clusters in Vietnam, Thailand already. It's when it becomes really efficient that one person can spread it to lots of people, who then spread it to lots of people, is when the trouble really occurs, and so far this has not yet happened.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: How high do you rate the risk then, of this case?

JOHN HORVATH: I think our current risk levels, and I've been in contact with WHO recently, remain at the level it's been. No one has raised the risk levels yet. The figures people have been talking about are that there is a small but realistic chance that sometime in the next year or two we could have an epidemic or a pandemic. The figures that have been bandied around are 10 per cent.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: Do you accept those figures?

JOHN HORVATH: I think we do accept those figures. That's the sort of figures people internationally are talking about.

ALEXANDRA KIRK: How alarmed do you think Australians should be then, about Indonesia having confirmed its first human fatalities from bird flu?

JOHN HORVATH: Well, I don't think that we need to be any more alarmed than we are currently. We are working continuously to have a high level of preparedness. I don't think the fact that Indonesia is a bit physically closer than Thailand or Vietnam is an issue, as with air travel everything is close.

TONY EASTLEY: Australia's Chief Medical Officer, Professor John Horvath, speaking with Alexandra Kirk.

43/4

Felt glum today. Not going to say more than that.

Without good manners human society becomes intolerable and impossible - George Bernard Shaw

Courage & Energy

I always like to read about other athletes Ironman experiences. It's really compressing a huge day, a huge amount of will, and courage and energy, into a few sentences. Here's Lisa Bentley, a Canadian, sponsored by Cervelo. (In the photo above, that's Tyler Hamilton.)

Lisa Bentley wins Ironman Germany
July 11, 2005
Just a quick note to send back a very happy report � I won Ironman Germany yesterday in 9 hours and 15 minutes. I have now been fortunate enough to have won a total of 9 Ironman competitions, but I can honestly say, that they are not getting any easier.

My training leading into Ironman Germany had been bang on and I was very excited to test myself. In fact, I might have been too excited because I didn�t sleep a wink that night before the race!! Well, thanks to Brian Kelly, head coach of the Dorado Swim Club who has been welcoming me to morning swim team practice over the past few months - I had my best swim ever � around 53 minutes. Thanks to my technical bike coach, Denise Kelly and my training partners who have been pushing me through my 6 hour rides � Tereza, Doug, Matt and Lawrence � I had an excellent bike ride of 5:13. And of course, to Lance, my coach, for programming all of my training and pushing me to my limits � I was able to back up my best ever swim-bike run combination with a 3:04 marathon on a technical run course which featured 18 � 180 degree turnarounds!!!

The race organization was top notch � the finish line cut through the center of the oldest buildings in Frankfurt, with huge bleachers stands loaded to the brim, with a huge video screen above the finish line and church bells ringing in the distance � the setting was surreal � and easily one of the best finish lines in the world. Normann Stadler and I were presented with our winner�s trophies on a balcony of a historic building looking out at the grandstands, finish line and historic square. It was truly the stuff dreams are made of!!!

Thank you so much for your support. I will write a proper report in a few days. Onward to Kona!!!

Lisa Bentley
www.lisabentley.com

Another of Lance's teammates won yesterday's 17th stage.

My next bike...

Tissink Wins Ironman Austria

Raynard Tissink won the Austrian Ironman this year, after narrowly missing a victory in Klagenfurt last year. It's an extremely fast course, and a fun venue, since Klagenfurt is a 'university town'. I'd love to do this race, especially since I have been to Austria before and it's a beautiful country.

It was Tissink who inspired me to get into Ironman. I can blame him for all the effort...in the end 3 complete seasons training and preparing to do the Ironman race, and I finally got it right the 3rd time, with the least training. In all 3 cases I struggled with sickness just before the race, and I believe, although I had an iron focus and an ironwill, in all 3 races I was still way too distracted.

I would love to buy a Cervelo frame, and I intend to be at my best for the next Ironman in South Africa. Perhaps, if I do really well, I'll upgrade my equipment one last time and aim for Hawaii. I'd like to do a third and possibly last Ironman somewhere else. Brazil, or Austria, or Australia. It does seem as though Ironman and EFL teaching in Asia will have to be inextricably linked. The one feeding resources to the other. The flipside is that I don't believe I can continue either of these activities for too much longer, and I'm less motivated to train in Asia, or should I say, to train hard here, and get to a high level.

Raynard Tissink (pictured above), like Armstrong, is a few months older than I am. He was starting triathlon when I was, and to be honest, I didn't think he was out of my league. In the beginning, his swim wasn't much better than mine. I think, to be good in this sport, you have to work damn DAMN hard. It's a lot of grafting. I saw Tissink on TV saying he did 18 hours of training in his easy week. He also said he did not consider pulling out of Ironman Sa when he had diarhea before the race because he hadn't trained as hard as he had, for 15 weeks, for nothing. 6 hours a day on the bike, an up at dawn, gut wreching seige of activity.
And I think you can see that at 33 years of age, this is where the body really reaches a peak in terms of stamina, and endurance. It's now that one can dream big, and pursue the hardest races in one's life.

Easy Money?

Time to turn the TV off! Just been watching Fear Factor. The first challenge was quite good. Girl is submerged (into cold water inside a perspex container) and her husband must unlock three locks, while holding his breath. Interestingly, both married couples succeeded (this requires a lot of trust on the girl's part, who is stuck and relying on her partner to let her escape and grab a breath of air) and both the ordinary couples couldn't get it right, and so used an emergency gate to escape.

The two couples go through to the final. To win $25 000 a couple must transfer giant Madagascan cockroaches from one container to another by using their mouths. The guy stuffs his face into a container crawling with cockraoches, picks them up with his mouth, then passes them to his wife's mouth and she spits the damn thing out in another container. The winner transfers the most cockroaches.

Even more disgusting (on a different show)was a couple who had to transfer squid ink the same way...

Spinning

Firefox shows a flaming red thermometer for Friday. A click on the icon reveals that Friday will be "very hot (35 degrees celcius) and humid. Right now it is 28 degrees Celicus and it's 8:16pm. It was very uncomfortable in school, and it's going to get a lot hotter this week.

I'm watching out of the corner of my eye. Brad Pitt is visiting a shanti in Africa, kissing a terminal black woman (with Aids and TB), saying, "it's good to see you again."
Shaking hands with babies in a hospital, many of whom are orphaned.
He questions how come one can choose from 28 cough syrups in the States, but a mother can't get hold of a single spoonful for her sick child.

The cost of one sandwich and soda in America can treat a child suffering from TB for up to 6 months. The richest country in the world contributes less than 1% of its GDP to foreign Aid (to Africa). This makes it also one of the most selfish countries in the Developed World.

Having said that, handouts are not the way to solve Africa's (or any poor countries) problem. But being involved, connected, investing, is the best way to help.
There are 300 million people starving in Africa. That's almost a mirror of the entire American population.
We can almost not imagine how dire things are in parts of Africa. Girls who describe a good night in prostitution, where they earned $2.50, and probably none of their clients used condoms. Children who describe their favorite toy as a plastic ball, favorite meal as Kellogg's cereal.
The moral of the story, if we aren't compelled to contribute, or visit, is simply to be grateful for fresh water each day, for nearby food, for a job, for health. And to say thank you, in the store, when we pay for something, thank you when someone who has just cleaned the restroom passes us in the hallway. It is a way we can honor each other, honor life, respect ourselves.

So if Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston are tired of having sex with each other, what hope is there for the rest of us?
(Must say in this interview he responds to a question about him being googled over 2.7 millions times saying, "It's misguided. It's strange what people focus on. I know it's entertainment, I understand that, but you know..."
Was interesting to see a famous celebrity turn serious, and be serious. I think to a certain level it seems like everything celebrities do is deliberate, even the stories spun in their name.
But the onus should also be on them to put the record straight (if they don't like their image, or how they are being portrayed), to play inspiring characters in inspiring stories. Like Meryl Streep does. Most of her roles show her to be an intelligent person, with an intelligible view of the world, and of herself. I think Nicole Kidman is becoming a more serious actress, almost as serious as Sean Penn. It's possible to have a sensible persona, even if most of what Hollywood churns out is stylised hokum and eye candy.

The kind of life we want depends on the kind of people we are - our character. It's who we are, who we choose to be, that becomes the life we choose, and the life we have.

43/Midweek

The exodus continues. Sumin quit yesterday, so now there is only one original staff member out of the first 6 when I started working here. Quite a turnover rate. They are getting together tonight and the beer will likely flow. Would like to go but that will mean coming back into Hwajeong. The best place in the world seems to be either a swimming pool, or just in my ice cool apartment with a tall glass filled with chinkling iceblocks and Powerade or something.

I've been reading a book about teaching kids in Asia and am trying out a few techniques. Will elaborate more on that later.

Today is the sweatiest day yet. Sometimes feels unbearably sticky. All the aircons are on and it doesn't make an difference. Will start to wear shorter pants and slip slops and shorts made out of much lighter materials.

Don't think I'm going to swim tonight. Will try to get up early tomorrow and do an easy run. There's a half Iroanman waiting for me at the end of the week. I was thinking today, on my way to work, Would you want to be doing the 20km run (after the swim and 90km cycle) on Saturday at this time of day, in this heat?

Oracle: Do you know what that means?
[points to a banner]
Oracle: It means know thy self. I wanna tell you a little secret, being the one is just like being in love. No one needs to tell you you are in love, you just know it, through and through.

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

[Neo receives a cell phone in an overnight-mail envelope. As soon as he's holding it, it rings]
Neo: Hello?
Morpheus: Hello, Neo. Do you know who this is?
Neo: Morpheus?
Morpheus: Yes. I've been looking for you, Neo. I don't know if you're ready to see what I want to show you, but unfortunately, you and I have run out of time. They're coming for you, Neo, and I don't know what they're going to do.
Neo: Who's coming for me?
Morpheus: Stand up and see for yourself.
Neo: What, right now?
Morpheus: Yes, now.

Morpheus: I imagine that right now, you're feeling a bit like Alice. Hmm? Tumbling down the rabbit hole?
Neo: You could say that.
Morpheus: I see it in your eyes. You have the look of a man who accepts what he sees because he is expecting to wake up. Ironically, that's not far from the truth. Do you believe in fate, Neo?
Neo: No.
Morpheus: Why not?
Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.
Morpheus: I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Neo: The Matrix.
Morpheus: Do you want to know what it is?
Neo: Yes.
Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work... when you go to church... when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
Neo: What truth?
Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or see or touch. A prison for your mind.

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more that your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why? Why do you persist?
Neo: Because I choose to.

Neo: I just have never...
Rama-Kandra: ...heard a program speak of love?
Neo: It's a... human emotion.
Rama-Kandra: No, it is a word. What matters is the connection the word implies. I see that you are in love. Can you tell me what you would give to hold on to that connection?
Neo: Anything.
Rama-Kandra: Then perhaps the reason you're here is not so different from the reason I'm here.

Neo: Why am I here?
The Architect: Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here.
Neo: You haven't answered my question.
The Architect: Quite right. Interesting. That was quicker than the others.

43/2 Fire, Fire!

In truth, the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits - Og Mandino

Going to bed early tonight. Not much to report. Korean teacher called Sharon replaced Jane - the same one I met last night. There was a very gloomy atmosphere amongst the teachers at work today. Apparently the director overheard Jane talking about the director, and he flew into a rage and fired her. One of the teachers was crying when I arrived, because I think she felt sorry for Jane. She said to me later, "Nick, can you understand that man?" He also fired a hole through his foot, because the school is becoming rickety and unstable with all the new teachers going through. Sumin (who has worked here for over 2 years)confided in me that she is thinking of leaving herself, over the next few weeks. That'll be too bad.

Dragged myself through Newcore's grocery store after work. Bought some salmon, mandu, mince, wine, bread and an avocado. Just a quick loadup.

Now it's time tozzzzzzzzzzz

Agent Smith: But, as you well know, appearances can be deceiving, which brings me back to the reason why we're here. We're not here because we're free. We're here because we're not free. There is no escaping reason; no denying purpose. Because as we both know, without purpose, we would not exist.
[Several Agent Smith Clones walk in]
Agent Smith Clone 1: It is purpose that created us.
Agent Smith Clone 2: Purpose that connects us.
Agent Smith Clone 3: Purpose that pulls us.
Agent Smith Clone 4: That guides us.
Agent Smith Clone 5: That drives us.
Agent Smith Clone 6: It is purpose that defines us.
Agent Smith Clone 7: Purpose that binds us.
Agent Smith: We are here because of you, Mr Anderson. We're here to take from you what you tried to take from us.
[Attempts to copy himself into Neo]
Agent Smith: Purpose.

What Drives You? What is my Purpose?

What is your purpose? Have you ever thought about that? Everything has a purpose (in the 2nd Matrix this subject is hit on really well). So what is yours?

Mine, in terms of specific missions, seems to fluctuate and change. In one season it may be doing the Ironman, in another, to work on some writing, in another, to lose weight, in another, to save a certain amount of money. But I am not talking about goals. My present overriding goal is to be back in South Africa on around December 10. To do the half Ironman this coming weekend (no time specified, the goal is simply to compete). But what about the broader paradigm, the guiding reason for me being here?

I see my identity as being an artist (particularly a writer). This appears to be the truest way to see myself, because I know myself as someone very visual, imaginative and creative, but also moody, emotional and sometimes inconsistent.
But that's identity, what is my purpose. Is my life purpose driven, or driven by anger, or guilt, or a need to please, or for approval.
My purpose: to inspire others. That's it. One of the ways I do that now is through teaching, and I am finding that my current venue doesn't fulfill me in this respect nearly enough. My mission in broader terms is to inspire others with passion, vision and insight. That may make me in the broadest sense a Communicator, a Messenger, a teacher, a coach, a motivator, or even just a manager. It may also mean I write and communicate in various ways, messages, pictures, words, images, that convey something inspirational.

I hope this website will continue to serve that primary purpose of lifting the spirits of those who read it.

South Africa presses into extra virgin oil market
18 July 2005

RIEBEEK KASTEEL: South Africa's wines have won fans around the world, but few gourmets know about the country's other contribution to fine dining � extra virgin olive oil.

That could soon change if the growing number of boutique oil-makers in South Africa, who say their product compares with the best from Spain, Italy and Greece, have their way.

"Producers (in South Africa) are going really big � it's going to be an exciting industry in a couple of years," said Paul Robinson, marketing and sales director for Willow Creek, one of the country's top oil-makers.

Willow Creek, in the Nuy valley in the heart of South Africa's main wine-making region in the Western Cape, won a coveted Grand Mention Diploma this year at the Leone d'Oro dei Mastri Oleari olive oil awards in Perugia, Italy, which Robinson said put the oil on a par with the best in the world.

Thanksgiving Day

I'm reading a few great books, and one of them has some effective principle based psychology (or self help). It's called LIFE'S GREATEST LESSONS and one of the imbedded virtues of the book is that it is written by a very well qualified and experienced teacher. His subject: human behaviour.

He offered his students this assignment: To go through a 24 hour period trying not to complain, and if they feel a complaint welling up, to write each one down. He says in over twenty years of teaching, and something like 70 000 students, he's only had 4 students who got through the period without feeling a need to complain.

He goes on to suggest that Gratitude/Thankfulness is the best habity to develop. This is because real enjoyment starts with an appreciative attitude, and none of the success we all dream about will ever come if we are based on our complaints for what we don't have, instead of enjoying what we've got.

So I'm going to make a public list of what seems to me to be a fairly private subject at first glance. Except when you look at it, appreciating things like health, and friends, can be pretty universal attitudes to hold.

I'm Grateful for (abbreviated):

Things:
Zipp Wheels
Cannondale
Desktop +Sharp
Heart Rate Monitor
Books
Hmm - not many more things, maybe the farm and jeep and home away from home: 108 Klerck Avenue. Always good to be back there.
Investments and money I've saved.
LIVESTRONG wristband
Grey polartec fleece hat bought in Chamonix in '97


People (not complete!):
My lovely girlfriend
Dad, Casey Junior and Candice (and the memory of my Mother who died in 1989)
Can really fill this list!
Friends in SA (Allan/Alex/Mandy/Hugo/Les/Jenny,Jo,Marcelle etc.)
Friends in Korea (Corneli/Pete/Minjung/Song/Jerry/Rowan/Valentin/Venita/Jeremy etc.)
Friends in other foreign countries (Fiona (Singapore), Mark(UK), Tammy(OZ), Paul (Greece/Cyprus)etc.)
Current colleagues and some previous colleagues.
Old friends like Daniel,Franna,Mauritz,Albert,Petru, Hannes, Ane, Sophocles, Dirk etc
New friends in SA like Jean,Ilze,Alna,Yolandi
Extended family (Buddy, Marie, Michelle, Paddy, Gary, Shannon etc)
Friends of family like Tico and Ruth
Most ex-girlfriends, but I'm grateful for all I've learned from each special experience.
New friends and acquaintances in Korea like Sun Young, Sunny, EE Sung Hee etc etc.

Other:
Health
Writing background/talent
Swimming background/talent
Triathlon
Art talent
AAA Advertising School - fun and learnt a lot, and for once loved studying and doing homework
Work at The Jupiter Drawing Room (met some amazingly creative people in an exciting and colorful environment
2 years in The United Kingdom, especially the second, and especially the time in London, the Isles of Skye, Edinburgh and Northern Ireland
Work At Mr Delivery in Gardens (which meant deliveries in Tamboerskloof, Clifton, Camps Bay, Seapoint, even occasionally in Llandudno, in Cape Town. Was a lot of fun, met a lot of people and saw a heck of a lot. Allowed me to meet CEO's, develop my big idea and actually get out and do something with an idea.
University (all 9 years, but especially the first and last!)
Awesome childhood, holidays in Transkei, waterskiing, hiking, Hout Bay, swimming...
Debt free
Spiritual Journey/Relationship with God
New Dreams and goals that are forming again

I'm also grateful for my job. Is pretty stress free, have good relations with all of my colleagues, and is very comfortable in terms of few work commitments, comparatively few working hours and decent pay.

My apartment was handpicked by me, and it's the best home I've had to date in Korea.
It's interesting, looking back at that list, how low money is on it, and also that people basically outnumber everything else at least 3 to 1. It's also important to value and appreciate oneself, and invest in oneself, recognise one's talents and gifts, in order to move those dreams and goals (on my list they are at the bottom) all the way to the top.

The writer of the book mentioned above, described this as probably the most important assignment he has ever given his students, particularly in terms of their response and insights into their own lives. He said once students did this assignment, to make a list of everything they appreciate, they entered his classroom visibly more upbeat, positive, light and smiling and open and positive towards new things. I'd like to encourage you here to do the same, right now. Grab a piece of paper and 10 minutes and think about your life.
What can be more wonderful than living each day with a powerful and clear sense of mission and purpose...

News From the Korean Rollercoaster

I decided not to mention last night, that, as I was leaving work, I spoke to a Korean girl who described herself as "an English teacher." After my experience at the other GnB, where a new teacher pitched up out of the blue, and ended up confirming my status of part time/temporary worker/soon to be obsolete, this seemed a little ominous.

Late last night, I got an email from Jane, and I have to say it makes me a little sad:
I don't need to go to the institute today (Tuesday). The director didn't want to accept my point of view toward the education for children. I told him I wanted to work until he find the right person instead of me. At first he tried to persuade me to change my mind. But as I expected he ran out of his patience shortly. He shouted to me " Seek the comfortable place you want!!!"

She goes on to say:
My poor students...... Some of them had to experience changing their English teachers 6 times for half and a year.

The director yesterday didn't greet me all day, but bent right over me to make sure a plug was plugged in. His only words to me were at one point where I was checking my email, and he said, "Teaching time." Thanks buddy.

After what Jane writes I realise he must have been going through agony (I remember at one point he was practically gouging out his forehead while I was talking)when we had our conversation and I made a few suggestions for his school (about applying some basic rules). I remember he said he would speak to the students, he's made a couple of statements like that, none of which have turned into anything.

On a more positive note, Jane had these wise and kind words to say as well:
I hope I can take advantage of this experience to mature myself.

Nick! I anticipate your lovely books fulled with love for the world. We really really need that kind of books... ... for us and... ... for the ages to come.

She was referring to the children's stories I'm working on and has also put me in contact with a local illustrator. Must remember to follow up on our latest correspondence.

More news is that Corneli is going to Thailand during her holiday. That should be an interesting break for her. Will be pretty damn hot there now though, I would imagine. I'm wondering whether to let her use my camera to capture the beautiful tropical paradise scenery.
I might make a short 1 or 2 day trip to Busan or Gyeongju on the highspeed KTX, but something tells me that travelling in Korea while the Koreans are on holiday is just a bad idea, and the heat is also insufferable. I'll actually be happy to just build up my fitness, do very long cycles towards Han Tan Gang and Cheolwon and get into the pool some more.

I said to Corneli that I did, after all, take a 3 month break, earlier this year, so I think it is a bit extravagant to want to take another holiday. Obviously I'd like to. I'd also love to go back to the Philippines. My holiday there was one of my favorite experiences during my 3 years here.
Am considering making a detour during my trip back to South Africa, which may go via Thailand or Singapore or both, so am looking forward to that. It will depend on my own fiscal discipline.

Last snippet of news: 189 riders started this years Tour. There are 160 survivors, and only 5 teams that are intact (with all 9 riders) out of 14 or more teams.

This is a picture of one of yesterday's brutal climbs. Today is a rest day in the Tour de France.

Art?

Is this art? That's the Saatchi Gallery in London, in the background. Would you do something like this? Not sure if I would, but I saw it this morning and it stuck in my head...more for the tones...the sort of skin tones of the building in the background...as a kind of extension of the living foreground. If I was the artist I don't think I'd have everyone looking like corpses. It feels too Auschwitz or Kristalnacht. I'd have people in natural poses, maybe carrying flowers in their hair or something.

Afterthought: Any complaints for the graphic/unsightly/upsetting nature of this or other images below should be emailed to idontre@llycare.com or the artist himself at http://www.spencertunick.com/

An Approriate Image For the Text Below?

It was a very bloody weekend in Iraq, including a gasoline tanker truck bomb on Saturday evening in the commercial center of Masayyib, where people had come out to shop and mingle once the fierce heat of the midsummer day abated. The explosion killed a hundred people, while half a dozen regular car bombs went off elsewhere around Baghdad...

(text from www.kunstler.com)

Interesting Reading...

Some interesting articles (abbreviated here):
America's Truth Deficit
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/opinion/
18greider.html?th&emc=th

By WILLIAM GREIDER
Published: July 18, 2005

Washington

DURING the cold war, as the Soviet economic system slowly unraveled, internal reform was impossible because highly placed officials who recognized the systemic disorders could not talk about them honestly. The United States is now in an equivalent predicament. Its weakening position in the global trading system is obvious and ominous, yet leaders in politics, business, finance and the news media are not willing to discuss candidly what is happening and why. Instead, they recycle the usual bromides about the benefits of free trade and assurances that everything will work out for the best.

Much like Soviet leaders, the American establishment is enthralled by utopian convictions - the market orthodoxy of free trade globalization. The United States is heading for yet another record trade deficit in 2005, possibly 25 percent larger than last year's. Our economy's international debt position - accumulated from many years of tolerating larger and larger trade deficits - began compounding ferociously in the last five years. Our net foreign indebtedness is now more than 25 percent of gross domestic product and at the current pace will reach 50 percent in four or five years.


For a British Novelist, a Fictional Plot Jarringly Leads to a Real-Life Problem
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/
technology/18link.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=
1121695797-Gb+pNHq1Yd3cYj0DJQ8+pA

By TOM ZELLER Jr.
Published: July 18, 2005

FOR Chris Cleave, a British writer, the date stamp "7/7" will forever mark the bizarre convergence of two events: the deadly terrorist attack in London two weeks ago and the debut of his first novel, "Incendiary" - a story of despair and recovery in the wake of, yes, a deadly terrorist attack in London.

Indeed, as smoke billowed up from London's Underground on July 7, dozens of promotional posters for the book stared out from the subway walls - their images of smoke rising from the London skyline suddenly raw and offensive, their tagline, "What If?", suddenly ignorant.

Executives at Chatto & Windus, the Random House imprint that published the book in Britain, quickly had the posters removed. Print ads for the book were also withdrawn, and publicity engagements were canceled.

Mr. Cleave supported all of those decisions. "By sorrowful coincidence the day my book was published," Mr. Cleave wrote in The Sunday Telegraph last week, "its fictional world became murderous, brutal reality."

But for Mr. Cleave, questions of whether and how to proceed with promoting his novel lingered. So last Monday, he turned to the Internet and asked the world for guidance.

"Is it disrespectful to the families of the victims for me to keep endorsing it?" Mr. Cleave wrote in a Web forum he created. "Or would it be a greater disrespect if I didn't?"

In a telephone interview last week, Mr. Cleave said he had received hundreds of responses - through both the forum and private e-mail messages. They ranged from encouraging and thoughtful ("your book didn't cause the bombings"), to indifferent ("blah, blah, blah ... it's a book"), poignant ("art is more important than murderers") and strange ("my 'remote viewing' skills were unable to pinpoint the locations of possible terrorist attacks in England").

But more than anything, Mr. Cleave said, the responses have given him access to the views of people - in London and around the globe - as they take stock of a terrorist attack and try to move on.

"As a writer, I'm quite isolated sometimes," Mr. Cleave said. "I sit in my small room in my small flat looking out the window at this one particular tree - and that's my input."

www.chriscleave.com.

Tour's Pedal Pals: Stage to Hincapie; Armstrong Rolls On
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/18/
sports/sportsspecial/18tour.html

By SAMUEL ABT
Published: July 18, 2005

ST.-LARY-SOULAN, France, July 17 - In a day of triumph for the Discovery Channel team, Lance Armstrong solidified his hold on the lead of the Tour de France and, in a surprise, his teammate George Hincapie won the stage through six daunting climbs in the Pyrenees on Sunday.

Armstrong, center, checked out Jan Ullrich, right, during the 128-mile stage. Ivan Basso, left, moved into second while Ullrich stayed in fourth.

George Hincapie, Armstrong's teammate, won Sunday's stage.

"The greatest day of my career," Hincapie said. "I just won the biggest race of my life. I can't believe I won the hardest mountain stage in the Tour. I'm in shock right now."

Hincapie, who was born in Queens and grew up in Farmingdale, on Long Island, said that when he saw Armstrong after the finish, "He said, 'Unbelievable,' and gave me a big hug."

Hincapie is the only teammate of Armstrong's who has been with him for all six of his Tour victories, and they are neighbors in Girona, Spain, during the season.

"An exploit," Armstrong said of Hincapie's feat in the 15th stage. "You can't beat winning this stage.

Dereliction of Duty?

Was this a dereliction of duty? George Hincapie, a native New Yorker and cycling companion of Lance Armstrong's for a staggering 20 year period (they've cycled together since they were young teeneagers) won yesterday's hideously tough 15th stage.

His first stage win in the Tour de France, and possibly his first ever. Not because he is not a good rider, he is one of the best (the fact that he won Sunday's toughest stage of the entire Tour says something), but because his job as a domestique (roughly translated its a servant/domestic worker/worker bee) means all his efforts are for his team leader, Lance. In yesterday's stage he pulled to as much as 18 minutes ahead of Lance's peloton. Bruyneel, when he saw that Lance's group would probably not catch the breakaway group containing Hincapie, allowed him the opportunity, which rarely comes in professional cycling, to ride for himself. He did and won. Armstrong described the day as perfect, and what better way to celebrate a last Tour than having his best and most loyal lieutenant winning a stage, wearing yellow for once.

Can I be accused of a dereliction of duty today? In all the but the first two and last two classes I let the students play hangman. Was just so hot...
I later realised that since I've started working at the school in May, we haven't played a single game! I mean, a game that abandons the books completely. I like to incorporate fun and playfulness into the actual content. Was gratifying to see Peter, one of the most cunning of the naughty students, who also seems particularly clueless when it comes to reading or anything else in English, really participating and trying to guess the letters. Some interesting words and short phrases: Pomegranate, airconditioner, salad, roller coaster and bumpe(r) car, Brachiosauros...

We Told You So: Kunstler & Kristof

Slip-sliding Away
by James Howard Kunstler

July 18, 2005
It was a very bloody weekend in Iraq, including a gasoline tanker truck bomb on Saturday evening in the commercial center of Masayyib, where people had come out to shop and mingle once the fierce heat of the midsummer day abated. The explosion killed a hundred people, while half a dozen regular car bombs went off elsewhere around Baghdad.

The British government, meanwhile, confirmed a rumor in the wake of the London subway bombings, that they intend to withdraw a substantial number of troops soon -- and there were rumblings that the US Military had prepared a plan to get out sooner rather than later, too.

From a US strategic point-of-view, none of the options available are very appetizing. Staying in Iraq looks increasingly like an exercise in futility. The Jihad continues full-strength, Fourth Generation Warfare-style (in the phrase of Bill Lind), an archetypal asymmetrical clusterfuck of "little guys" with potent small arms paralyzing a military giant. Being a Jihad, it is directed against all "infidels" including the "crusader" western soldiers, the Shi'ite-dominated provisional government members (for cooperating with the occupying crusaders), and the Shia populace for being Shia.

The US could conceivably withdraw from the population centers and remain within a set of "Fort Apache" bases strung out in the desert, but that would mean abandoning the pretense of bringing "freedom and democracy" to the Middle East, while leading to serious questions of re-supply, since it has already been demonstrated that we can barely control the highway from Baghdad's airport to the Green Zone. It also leaves the central political problem of infidels occupying Islamic terrain, therefore requiring continued Jihad wherever opportunity allows outside Iraq, i.e. world-wide terrorism.

I hate to introduce this hoary old idea, but I believe it is true: an American withdrawal will be interpreted as a sign of weakness by aggressive enemies (and we do have enemies). If the US diminishes or gives up its military presence (that is, our police station) in the Middle East, it may only be a matter of time before we lose access to two-thirds of the world's remaining oil supplies that happen to be located there. We would also have to wonder how long our military bases in Afghanistan and several former Soviet republics could hold out in the face of a withdrawal from Iraq -- with the additional problem of the combined displeasure of Russia and China militating against our presence there.

What I believe will happen: the Jihadi violence will continue, the American public will lose patience with the attrition in Iraq, other flash points (North Korea, Pakistan, Venezuela, Mexico) will make it clear that the US Army is not capable of conducting land operations elsewhere, events will evolve to choke off oil imports to the US as our hegemony slips away, terror events in the Europe will continue and provoke a backlash against Islamic imigrants, which will only inflame the Islamic world further, the US will revert to a naval strategy of attempting to protect our interests -- namely access to oil -- which will not be effective, and America will be plagued at home by political recrimation, blaming, scapegoating, and a futile campaign to keep the car-dependent utopia going.

Ultimately, the world will enter The Long Emergency, a horizonless era of conflict, withering global economic relations, and energy starvation -- with plummeting standards of living.

Meanwhile, we are doing nothing at home to prepare for this future, for instance a crash program to restore the American railroad system, or to restore true fiscal discipline to the mortgage industry in order to stem the insane spread of even more car-dependent suburban sprawl (a.k.a. the housing bubble). Where is the Democratic party (my party) on this? Lost in the raptures of sexual and racial pandering.

And now for something even more depressing:

Behind Enemy Lines

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: July 12, 2005

PYONGYANG, North Korea

President Bush and his top officials are studiously pretending not to notice, but here in the most bizarre country in the world, the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, is throwing down a nuclear gauntlet at Mr. Bush's feet.

Senior North Korean officials here say the country has just resumed the construction of two major nuclear reactors that it stopped work on back in 1994. Before construction resumed, the C.I.A. estimated that it would take "several years" to complete the two reactors, but that they would then produce enough plutonium to make about 50 nuclear weapons each year.

This is the most regimented, militarized and oppressive country in the world, but the government seems very firmly in control. And this new reactor construction, if it is sustained, is both scary and another sign that U.S. policy toward North Korea has utterly failed.

I was able to get a visa to North Korea (after being "banned for life" after my last visit, in 1989, for reasons that remain unclear) by tagging along with The Times's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., on a visit here. The government arranged for us to interview senior officials, including the vice president, the foreign minister and a three-star general. Officials insist that the new reactors are intended solely to provide energy for civilian purposes - and that in any case, North Korea will never transfer nuclear materials abroad.

Don't bet on that. If Pyongyang gets hundreds of weapons by using the new reactors, there will be an unacceptable risk of plutonium's being peddled for cash.

"If they were to succeed in getting one or the other in operation, that would really change the dynamics of the situation," said Jonathan Pollack, a North Korea expert at the Naval War College.

Kenneth Lieberthal, who ran Asian affairs for a time in the Clinton White House, put it this way: "If they get those two sites up, that then creates the potential for them becoming the proliferation capital of the world."

The Bush administration has refused to negotiate with North Korea one on one, or to offer a clear and substantial package to coax Mr. Kim away from his nuclear arsenal. Instead, Mr. Bush has focused on enticing North Korea into six-party talks. The North finally agreed on Saturday to end a yearlong stalemate and join another round of those talks.

Mr. Bush is being suckered. Those talks are unlikely to get anywhere, and they simply give the North time to add to its nuclear capacity.

Li Chan Bok, a leading general in the North Korean Army, made it clear that even as the six-party talks staggered on, his country would add to its nuclear arsenal.

"To defend our sovereignty and our system," he said, "we cannot but increase our number of nuclear weapons as a deterrent force."

The threat of new reactors coming on line makes it all the more urgent that Mr. Bush try direct negotiations - not only about nuclear weapons but also, as some conservatives are suggesting, about North Korea's human rights abuses.

No one knows whether direct negotiations and a clearer road map of incentives would succeed, but they couldn't fail any more abjectly than the present policy.

The two projects that North Korea is resuming work on are a 50-megawatt reactor in Yongbyon and a 200-megawatt reactor in Taechon. The former is now just a shell that has deteriorated in the years since work was suspended, but Li Gun, a director general in the Foreign Ministry, says work on it may be completed this year or next. The Taechon reactor would apparently take at least two or three years to complete.

It's possible that North Korea is bluffing or is resuming construction only to have one more card to negotiate away. But if not, there will be considerable pressure in the U.S. for surgical military strikes to prevent the reactors from becoming operational.

General Li said that if the U.S. launched a surgical strike, the result "will be all-out war." I asked whether that meant North Korea would use nuclear weapons (most likely against Japan). He answered grimly, "I said, 'We will use all means.' "

So don't let the welcome resumption of the six-party talks distract us from the reality: Mr. Bush's refusal to engage North Korea directly is making the peninsula steadily more dangerous. More than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, we are on a collision course with a nuclear power.

All the lonely (lovely?) people...

These people are queuing up for a Spencer Tunick 'Installation', as he calls it. A bunch of people posing nude (en mass) around some urban landscape. The men seem to outnumber the girl, if this picture is any indication. The girl to the right of the bobbies flurescent yellow elbow looks alright, but the man beside her does not. Must be a crazy feeling to participate in one of these...

Poof. What a day. Finally got home and then did Operation Get Rid Of That Smell. It's so hot that any organic matter starts ponging in a couple of hours. The aircon is a mercy though.

43/1 Sweatbox

Blindingly bright day today, and just walking to the bus got me all sweaty. Sumin bought me an icecream. A nice coffee flavored one. Perfect on a day like today.

Also have a sore throat. Not quite sure how. Maybe it's from the airconditioning.

Need to clean my apartment tonight. Sungho Pool is open from 9:30pm to midnight, so will go for a goof if I am feeling up to it. Need to go as I didn't swim at all this weekend. Body is quite tired from the 80km cycle yesterday.

Karlee emailed and offered to give me her bicycle which she left here when she moved to Gangnam. Might come in useful for getting to the pool and back.

My shirt is clinging to my back...

17:33 - The New Top 10 In General Classification

After 15 stages of the 2005 Tour de France, the top 10 in the general classification is as follow:
1. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - 2,645.5km in 62h09�59" (42.309km/h)
2. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 2�46"
3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 3�09"
4. Jan Ullrich (Germany) TMO - at 5�58"
5. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA - at 6�31"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST - at 7�35"
7. Floyd Landis (USA) PHO - at 9�33"
8. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kazakstahn) TMO at 9�38"
9. Christophe Moreau (France) C.A - at 11�47"
10. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO - at 12�01"
17:29 - The Top 10 In Stage 15

The top 10 in the stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to Pla-d�Adet is:
1. George Hincapie (USA) DSC - 205.5km in 6h�06�38" (33.63km/h)
2. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Spain) PHO - at 06"
3. Pietro Caucchioli (Italy) C.A - at 38"
4. Michael Boogerd (Netherlands) RAB - at 57"
5. Laurent Brochard (France) BTL - at 2�19"
6. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC - at 5�04"
7. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at 5�04"
8. Oscar Sevilla (Spain) TMO - at 6�28"
9. Jan Ullrich (Ger) TMO - at 6�28"
10. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB - at 6�32"
17:25 - George�s Spectacular Day

George Hincapie has become the first team-mate of Lance Armstrong to win a stage of the Tour since 1999. Although Hincapie has enjoyed team time trial success before, this is his first individual stage win in the Tour de France. He is the eighth American (after LeMond, Phinney, Pierce, Hampsten, Armstrong, Hamilton and Zabriskie) to win a solo stage of the Tour de France.
17:23 - Ullrich At The Finish

Sevilla has led his team-mate Ullrich over the line 6�27" behind Hincapie.
17:21 - Armstrong Finishes

Basso has led Armstrong over the line to 5�03" behind Hincapie.

16:56 - Basso Attacking...

Basso is gritting his teeth and striving to drop Armstrong but the yellow jersey is capable of matching the Italian. We don’t have a time check for Ullrich but he appears to be about 100m behind.
16:54 - Armstrong Follows Basso

Basso and Armstrong have dropped Ullrich. The distance between these riders is about 50 meters. Basso and Armstrong have just caught Camano.
16:53 - Basso Attacking!

Ivan Basso has attacked Armstrong’s group. The yellow jersey has set off in pursuit of the CSC rider. Armstrong is now only about 10m behind Basso. Ullrich has not been able to follow.
16:51 - Armstrong Trails By 7’35"

Armstrong’s group is 7’35" behind the leaders with 10km to go.

16:25 - Ullrich Now Setting The Pace

Ullrich is now ahead of Armstrong and Basso. Armstrong responded quickly and raced ahead of the German.
16:24 - Basso Setting The Pace

Basso is leading Armstrong and Ullrich with about 4.5km to go to the top of the Col de Val-Louron Azet.
(We don�t have any time checks on the dropped riders but will report them once they have been given by race radio.)
16:23 - Armstrong & Basso Lead At 179.5km Mark

Basso began his attack at the 179.5km mark. There are 5km to climb and Ullrich is now out of the picture. Armstrong has just hit the accelerator but he�s eased the pace and Ullrich is coming back to Armstrong and Basso.
16:22 - Kroon Captured

Kroon has been caught by Basso and Armstrong who have just dropped Ullrich.
16:21 - Basso Sets The Pace

Basso has come to the front of the yellow jersey�s peloton. He has put some distance into Ullrich and Armstrong but the yellow jersey has responded.
16:20 - Vinokourov & Ullrich Lead

Vinokourov and Ullrich are now driving the yellow jersey�s peloton. Evans is the latest rider to be dropped.Arrival town

[Saint-Lary-Les-Thermes (Photo : Saint-Lary)]
Saint-Lary-Les-Thermes (Photo : Saint-Lary)
Saint-Lary-Soulan

Saint-Lary Soulan has all the charm of a traditional Pyrenean village, with well-preserved architecture and environment, as well as the state of the art skiing facilities of one of the leading resorts in the French Pyrenees. Animated both night and day, it lies close to the Pyrenees National Park and to the Spanish border, and provides the full range of mountain outdoor activities, such as hiking, mountain biking or paragliding. Visitors will enjoy a variety of excursions to learn more about local traditions and customs, as well as the state of the art spa centre with its recently opened Spanish Canyon pool for a fun splash.

www.saintlary.com

16:11 - Sevilla Just Following Leaders

Sevilla is still in the lead group but he�s just not participating with the pace setting.
16:10 - Sevilla Out Of Lead Group

Sevilla has dropped behind the leading group several times now. He doesn�t appear to have too much trouble keeping up with the five others at the front of the stage but he may be receiving team orders to wait for T-Mobile�s leaders (Ullrich, Kloden and Vinokourov). Similar tactics were employed yesterday when Nardello was in the escape group.
16:08 - Brochard Attacks Lead Group

There was a brief acceleration from Laurent Brochard. He has been chased down by the five others in the lead group. The two riders who are not setting the pace are Sevilla and Hincapie.
16:07 - Lead Grows Again

Pereiro, Caucchioli, Brochard, Hincapie, Sevilla and Boogerd are 11�45" ahead of the yellow jersey�s peloton at the 169.5km mark.
16:05 - Details Of The Col de Val-Louren Azet

The fifth climb of the 15th stage is 7.4km long with an average gradient of 8.3 per cent. The road rises from 978m to 1,580m to the summit.
16:04 - Leaders On 5th Climb

The six stage leaders are 7km from the top of the 5th climb of the 15th stage. Pereiro is setting the pace of the escape which is about 11�30" ahead of the yellow jersey�s peloton.
15:59 - Yellow Jersey 11�30" Behind Six Leaders

The yellow jersey�s group is 11�30" behind the six escapees at the summit of the 4th climb.
15:58 - The Riders In The Yellow Jersey�s Peloton...

Here is a reminder of the riders who are in the yellow jersey�s peloton: Armstrong, Azevedo, Popovych, Rubiera (DSC), Ullrich, Kloden, Vinokourov (TMO), Basso (CSC), Mancebo (IBA), Jaksche (LSW), Evans (DVL), Rasmussen (RAB), Landis (PHO), Piepoli, Horner (SDV), Moreau, Kashechkin (C.A), Mazzoleni (LAM) and Leipheimer (GST).

This is today's very tough and very crucial 15th Stage. Here are the latest developments: Newsflashes
15:00 - Totschnig Dropped

Totschnig has been dropped by the peloton.
15:00 - Noval Dropped

The first Discovery Channel riders to be dropped by the peloton is Benjamin Noval who had been at the head of the peloton during the �lazy� phase of the stage.
14:59 - Sorensen Still Leading Peloton

There are still two CSC riders at the head of the peloton. The pace is currently being set by Sorensen who came ot the front with 7km to climb. Behind him is Sastre... he has a Discovery Channel shadow in the form of Savoldelli, Azevedo and Armstrong.
14:57 - Dekker 4�00" Behind

At the top of the Col du Portillon, Dekker was 4�00" behind Kroon.
14:55 - Astarloza�s Trio At 1�40"

Three of the riders dropped from the lead group - Astarloza, Pineau and Bertogliati - crested the Portillon climb 1�40" behind Kroon.
14:54 - Results Of The Col du Portillon

The points for the third climb of the 15th stage have been won by:
1. Kroon 15pts
2. Boogerd 13pts
3. Pereiro 11pts
4. Caucchioli 9pts
5. Davis 8pts
6. Sevilla 7pts
7. Hincapie 6pts
8. Camano 5pts
14:53 - Kroon Claims 15 Points

Kroon has led eight riders over the summit of the Col du Portillon. This group is now 1�15" ahead of Astarloza, Bertogliati and Pineau and about 16�45" ahead of the peloton.
14:51 - Bertolini Dropped

There are now nine riders in the lead group. Alessandro Bertolini is the latest victim of the pace being set by Kroon.
14:50 - 1km To Climb

The 10 leaders are now 1km away from the summit of the Col du Portillon. The pace is beting set by Kroon. Then comes Pereiro, Davis and Caucchioli.
14:49 - Sorensen & Sastre Now Leading Peloton

The CSC team has sent Nicki Sorensen and Carlos Sastre to the front of the peloton. The pace they�re setting is too much for many of riders in the peloton. A �grupetto� is forming at the back. The latest rider to be dropped by the bunch is Stefano Garzelli.
14:47 - Peloton On Col du Portillon

The peloton is 17�40" behind the 10 leaders. The bunch is being led by Luke Roberts (CSC) and is 17�40" behind the escapees.
14:46 - Kroon Sets The Pace

The lead group is now being led by Karsten Kroon of the Rabobank team. The Dutch squad has been in charge of the escape today. The move was instigated by Boogerd and two team-mates joined him at the 27km mark. Rabobank riders have won first place points on both climbs today.
14:44 - Bertogliati Dropped

Bertogliati has lost contact with the lead group which now consists of 10 riders.
14:43 - 11 In The Lead Group

There are now 11 riders in the group at the front of the stage. They are: Kroon and Boogerd (RAB), Pereiro (PHO), Caucchioli (C.A), Bertolini (DOM), Hincapie (DSC), Sevilla (TMO), Davis (LSW), Brochard (BTL) and Camano (EUS).
14:41 - Pineau Dropped

Pineau (BTL) is also losing contact with the escape group.
14:40 - Astarloza Dropped

The second rider to be dropped by the escape group on the Col du Portillon is Mikel Astarloza.
14:39 - CSC Riders Back At Front Of Peloton

There are two CSC riders now setting the pace for the peloton. They are Nicki Sorensen and Bobby Julich. The last time check had the bunch 17�50" behind the 14 escapees.
14:38 - Basso Back In Peloton

After his puncture, Basso has rejoined the peloton with the help of two team-mates.
14:37 - Leaders 5km From Col du Portillon

Dekker has been dropped from the 14-man escape group with 5km to go on the Col du Portillon.

A Sucker Bet (in North Korea)

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: July 17, 2005

PYONGYANG, North Korea

Every single home in this country has two portraits on the wall, one of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung, who is still president even though he died 11 years ago, and one of his son, the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Inspectors regularly visit homes to make sure the portraits are well cared for.

Every subway car carries those same two portraits as well, and every adult wears a button depicting the Great Leader. And every home (or village, in rural areas) has an audio speaker, which starts broadcasting propaganda at 6 each morning to tell people how lucky they are.

Children spend long hours in day care centers from the age of 6 months, sometimes returning to their parents only on weekends. Men normally perform seven or more years of military service. Disabled people are sometimes expelled from Pyongyang, a green and well-groomed capital that is one of the prettiest in Asia, because they are considered unsightly.

And although the national ideology is juche, or self-reliance, the U.N. World Food Program feeds 6.5 million North Koreans, almost one-third of the population. Even so, hunger is widespread and has left 37 percent of the children stunted.

Yet North Korea focuses its resources on prestige projects, like an amazing 10-lane highway to Nampo (with no traffic).

Many conservatives in and out of the Bush administration assume that North Korea's population must be seething and that the regime must be on its last legs. Indeed, the Bush administration's policy on North Korea, to the extent that it has one, seems to be to wait for it to collapse.

I'm afraid that could be a long, long wait. The central paradox of North Korea is this: No government in the world today is more brutal or has failed its people more abjectly, yet it appears to be in solid control and may even have substantial popular support.

From a brief visit like mine, it's hard to gauge the mood, because anyone who criticizes the government risks immediate arrest. But Chinese and other foreigners I've spoken to who live in North Korea or visit regularly say they believe that most North Koreans buy into the system, just as ordinary Chinese did during the Maoist period.

Likewise, over the years I've interviewed dozens of North Koreans who have fled to China or South Korea, and they overwhelmingly say that while they personally dislike the regime - that's why they fled - their relatives believe in the Kim dynasty with a quasi-religious faith. They say that when everyone is raised to worship the Dear Leader, when there are no contrary voices, people genuinely revere the leader.

Most say the faith is not as strong as it was a dozen years ago, mostly because so many people have heard whispers of Chinese prosperity. But they still laugh at the idea that the Dear Leader is about to be toppled.

"I think we'll have regime change in America before we have regime change in North Korea," says Han Park, a Korea specialist at the University of Georgia. He estimates that 30 percent of North Koreans have a stake in the system, and that most of the rest know so little about the outside world that they don't realize how badly off they are.

A hermetic seal is the main reason the Kim dynasty has survived so long. When I arrived at Pyongyang airport, I was obliged to hand over my cellphones and satellite phones, to be picked up on my departure. Even many senior government officials have no access to the Internet.

From the moment I landed at the airport, I kept trying to change money. But the airport refused, my hotel refused and shops refused. Foreigners are supposed to pay for everything only in foreign currency and be isolated from the local economy. (Finally, a friendly Korean official - they were all surprisingly friendly, with unexpectedly good senses of humor - gave me a few coins as souvenirs for my children.)

If the American policy premise about North Korea - that it is near collapse - is highly dubious, our essential policy approach is even more so. The West should be trying to break that hermetic seal, to increase interactions with North Korea and to infiltrate into North Korea the most effective subversive agents we have: overweight Western business executives.

Instead, we maintain sanctions, isolate North Korea and wait indefinitely for the regime to collapse. I'm afraid we're helping the Dear Leader stay in power.

Corrupted PC's Find New Home in the Dumpster

Above: Terrelea Wong, a doctor who replaced her infected computer, says she no longer clicks on pop-ups.

By MATT RICHTEL and JOHN MARKOFF
Published: July 17, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 - Add personal computers to the list of throwaways in the disposable society.

On a recent Sunday morning when Lew Tucker's Dell desktop computer was overrun by spyware and adware - stealth software that delivers intrusive advertising messages and even gathers data from the user's machine - he did not simply get rid of the offending programs. He threw out the whole computer.

Mr. Tucker, an Internet industry executive who holds a Ph.D. in computer science, decided that rather than take the time to remove the offending software, he would spend $400 on a new machine.

He is not alone in his surrender in the face of growing legions of digital pests, not only adware and spyware but computer viruses and other Internet-borne infections as well. Many PC owners are simply replacing embattled machines rather than fixing them.

"I was spending time every week trying to keep the machine free of viruses and worms," said Mr. Tucker, a vice president of Salesforce.com, a Web services firm based here. "I was losing the battle. It was cheaper and faster to go to the store and buy a low-end PC."

In the face of a constant stream of pop-up ads, malfunctioning programs and performance slowed to a crawl or a crash - the hallmarks of spyware and adware - throwing out a computer "is a rational response," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a Washington-based research group that studies the Internet's social impact.

While no figures are available on the ranks of those jettisoning their PC's, the scourge of unwanted software is widely felt. This month the Pew group published a study in which 43 percent of the 2,001 adult Internet users polled said they had been confronted with spyware or adware, collectively known as malware. Forty-eight percent said they had stopped visiting Web sites that might deposit unwanted programs on their PC's.

Moreover, 68 percent said they had had computer trouble in the last year consistent with the problems caused by spyware or adware, though 60 percent of those were unsure of the problems' origins. Twenty percent of those who tried to fix the problem said it had not been solved; among those who spent money seeking a remedy, the average outlay was $129.

By comparison, it is possible to buy a new computer, including a monitor, for less than $500, though more powerful systems can cost considerably more.

Meantime, the threats from infection continue to rise, and "the arms race seems to have tilted toward the bad guys," Mr. Rainie said.

The number of viruses has more than doubled in just the last six months, while the number of adware and spyware programs has roughly quadrupled during the same period, said Vincent Weafer, a senior director at Symantec, which makes the Norton computer security programs. One reason for the explosion, Symantec executives say, is the growth of high-speed Internet access, which allows people to stay connected to the Internet constantly but creates more opportunity for malicious programs to find their way onto machines.

Mr. Weafer said an area of particular concern was infections adept at burying themselves in a computer system so that the cleansing programs had trouble finding them. The removal of these programs must often be done manually, requiring greater technical expertise.

There are methods of protecting computers from infection through antivirus and spyware-removal software and digital barriers called firewalls, but those tools are far from being completely effective.

"Things are spinning out of control," said David Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale.

Mr. Gelernter said his own family's computer became so badly infected that he bought a new one this week. He said his two teenage sons were balking at spending the hours needed to scrub the old one clean of viruses, worms and adware.

Mr. Gelernter blames the software industry for the morass, noting that people are increasingly unwilling to take out their "software tweezers" to clean their machines.

Microsoft executives say they decided to enter the anti-spyware business earlier this year after realizing the extent of the problem.

"We saw that a significant percentage of crashes and other problems were being caused by this," said Paul Bryan, an executive in the company's security business unit. Windows XP Service Pack 2, an upgrade to the latest Windows operating system that has been distributed to more than 200 million computers, includes an automated malware removal program that has been used 800 million times this year, he said.

At least another 10 million copies of a test version of the company's spyware removal program have been downloaded. Yet Microsoft executives acknowledged that they were not providing protection for people who have earlier versions of the company's operating system. And that provides little comfort for those who must navigate the perils of cyberspace.

Terrelea Wong's old computer now sits beside her sofa in the living room, unused, except as a makeshift table that holds a box of tissues.

Ms. Wong, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in South San Francisco, started getting a relentless stream of pop-up ads a year ago on her four-year-old Hewlett-Packard desktop computer. Often her entire screen would turn blue and urge her to "hit any key to continue." Sometimes the computer would freeze altogether.

After putting up with the problem for months, Ms. Wong said she decided last November that rather than fix her PC, she would buy a new one. Succumbing to the seduction of all the new bells and whistles, she spent $3,000 on a new Apple laptop.

She is instituting new rules to keep her home computer virus-free.

"I've modified my behavior. I'm not letting my friends borrow my computer," she said, after speculating that the indiscriminate use of the Internet by her and her friends had led to the infection problems.

Peter Randol, 45, a stockbroker for Charles Schwab in Denver, is at his wits' end, too. His family's four-year-old Dell computer has not been the same since last year when they got a digital subscriber line for high-speed Internet access. Mr. Randol said the PC's performance has slowed, a result he attributes to dozens of malicious programs he has discovered on the computer.

He has eliminated some of the programs, but error messages continue to pop up on his screen, and the computer can be agonizingly slow.

"I may have no choice but to buy a new one," he said, noting that he hopes that by starting over, he can get a computer that will be more impervious to infection.

Buying a new computer is not always an antidote. Bora Ozturk, 33, who manages bank branches in San Francisco, bought a $900 Hewlett-Packard computer last year only to have it nearly paralyzed three months ago with infections that he believes he got from visiting Turkish news sites.

He debated throwing the PC out, but it had pictures of his newborn son and all of his music files. He decided to fix it himself, spending 15 hours learning what to do, then saving all his pictures and music to a disk and then wiping the hard drive clean - the equivalent of starting over.

For his part, Mr. Tucker, the Salesforce.com executive, said the first piece of software he installed on the new machine two weeks ago was antivirus software. He does not want a replay of his frustrations the last month, when the attacks on his old machine became relentless.

"It came down to the simple human fact that maintaining the old computer didn't pay," he said.

Slept after lunch until 6pm. Woke up with a sore throat. Back to Hogwarts tomorrow.

3 die from suspected bird flu

By Sebastien Berger, SE Asia Correspondent
(Filed: 16/07/2005)

Three people have died of suspected avian influenza in Indonesia, health authorities said yesterday.

If confirmed, they would be the first human fatalities in the country from the H5N1 bird flu virus, which experts fear could cause millions of deaths worldwide if it mutates into a form that can be easily transmitted between people.

The victims, a 38-year-old man from a suburb of Jakarta and his two daughters aged nine and one, died within 10 days of each other.

They were not believed to have had contact with infected poultry, officials said, but further investigation could show otherwise.

Dr Oloan Tampubolon, who oversaw their treatment, said that the man's wife had been traumatised by the deaths.

"Yesterday, she asked me 'what is God's plan for my family?'" he said.

"I said you never know what God's plan is, but you and your son are still around so keep on going."

5 July 2005: China urged to be honest over bird flu


Previous story: Belgium leads fight against G8 plan for debt relief
Next story: Europe declares war on the 'gas-guzzling' 4x4s

Consequences of Mild Human H5N1 Bird Flu Infections in China

Recombinomics Commentary
July 15, 2005

The latest boxun report describes widespread mild human H5N1 infections in China in 2004 and 2005. Although these reports have not been independently confirmed by WHO or third part press releases, they have been confirmed by the sequences at GenBank and the change in the behavior of the H5N1 in northern Vietnam.

This year many of the H5N1 infections in northern Vietnam were much milder than last year. The 2005 sequences from northern Vietnam contained new polymorphisms that matched isolates from Yunnan province in China. These data indicated the 2004 isolates from Vietnam had recombined with the 2003 and 2004 isolates from Yunnan to create northern Vietnam recombinants.

The change in pattern was noted in northern Vietnam and 1000 serum samples were collected. These samples were H5N1 positive by western blot and PCR assays. However, WHO refused to believe the data and continued testing until they produced a negative result, and then declared the patients as being negative. The WHO did not want to follow their own definitions of a pandemic which would place the current pandemic at level five or six and force pandemic preparedness procedures to be initiated.

Thus, WHO has refused to follow its own definitions. It would not acknowledge the widespread human-to-human transmission, the guidance for a patient testing positive for H5N1 by two laboratory tests as being positive, and the current stage at 5 or 6 based on widespread and sustained transmission.

This failure to properly prepare is shortsighted, because the widespread distribution of H5N1 in asymptomatic humans, swine, and birds gives rise to more recombination, which may have created transmissible H5N1 that is very lethal in Indonesia and Qinghai.

The unstable situation will likely deteriorate in the upcoming weeks as more birds migrate back to the south bringing new H5N1 sequences that can recombine with H5N1 in asymptomatic people, pigs, and birds.

H5N1 has continued to expand its host range while WHO issued press releases supporting their program of denial.

Unfortunately, H5N1 does not read press releases, but they know how to play Truth or Consequences.

Hunting for Clues in Oil's Direction

By Craig Stanley
16 Jul 2005 at 12:39 PM EDT

TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- Prognostications on the future direction of any asset price tend to be a mug’s game, generally exposing the soothsayer to eventual ridicule.

A year-and-a-half ago, most analysts featured in the mainstream ‘financial’ media were talking as if a rise in long-term bond yields was inevitable. Late last year, it was a foregone conclusion that the U.S. dollar would plummet early in 2005.

So guessing where oil prices are headed after hitting a nominal, U.S. dollar denominated, record high north of $60 a barrel appears fruitless.

Yet that is partly what analysts are paid to do.

Looking at some recent reports, the factors being put forth to explain the high prices are both rational and logical, and they could provide indications on where oil could go from here. What’s lacking is equal space devoted to possible causes, and guesses to their likelihood, of a downslide.

In a July 4, 2005 report, TD Newcrest revised their average 2005 and 2006 estimates for WTI at $53 and $50 respectively. Analysts at the firm say the forces that have pushed crude prices to new highs remain “firmly in place,” including:

*
Heavy demand for heating oil and diesel, which is supporting demand for grades of crude that yield larger middle distillate cuts, such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent.
*
Rising prices for diesel and jet fuel, more so than heating oil and kerosene, that reflects a perceived shortage of global refining capacity, pushing crack spreads to near record highs. Since no new refining capacity is expected anytime soon, crack spreads should remain high, pulling crude prices up along with them.
*
A strong forward pricing incentive in the futures market.
*
As OPEC members are believed to be producing at near full capacity, the market will guard against possible supply disruptions by buying up any available crude, keeping demand strong.

The last point explains why the market shrugged off reports of the recent rise in inventories, both in and outside the U.S. - demand hasn’t slowed, it’s just the market protecting itself from additional price increases.

Is there any spare capacity?

Martin King at FirstEnergy Capital Corp. estimated in a June 20, 2005 report that average global productive capacity for crude oil and natural gas liquids combined in 2005 is about 85.9 million barrels per day (bpd).

Productive capacity is the volume of crude oil and natural gas liquids that could be produced if all the world’s wells were pumping at full tilt. In contrast, spare capacity is the difference between productive capacity and how much is actually being produced.

The analyst wrote that due to rising prices, spare capacity in non-OPEC countries has been effectively nil since 2003, a situation he forecasts will last for the rest of the decade.

As a result, the baton of marginal pricing was placed firmly in the grasp of OPEC. Yet its members have failed to expand and upgrade their production capacity in line with the increase in global demand.

King believes OPEC could boost its spare capacity to more than 3 million bpd in five years. However, this would require members to open up their borders to more foreign investment and/or their state-owned firms to increase the pace in expanding infrastructure, both of which, in the past and at present, have not shown a willingness to do.

King foresees global spare capacity at just 700,000 bpd in 2005 and 800,000 in 2006. When taking into account production of 500,000 bpd of heavier sour crude, mostly from Saudi Arabia, these forecasts drop perilously close to nil.

Could anything cause prices to fall?

On June 7, 2005 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimated third quarter world oil production to be 85.1 million barrels per day, exceeding demand by 600,000 barrels per day. For all of 2005, the DOE is forecasting supply to exceed demand by 200,000 barrels per day.

This indicates we could be in for higher future spot prices. But is there anything that could derail oil prices?

Most analysts are taking only a cursory look at such possible factors. These include the end of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fill-up and a slowdown in economic growth resulting from higher oil and distillate prices.

The big variable, though, would be less-than-expected demand from China.

In a June 27, 2005 report, Desjardins Securities estimated that were it not for Chinese demand, oil prices would drop to $15 a barrel sometime between now and 2007 at the latest. In effect, demand from China is acting as a floor for prices.

Yet the Xinhua news agency recently reported that Chinese crude oil imports in the first half of the year rose only 3.9%, a tenth the size of the increase in the same period a year ago. Imports of petroleum products declined 21%.

In a June 28, 2005 report, Scotia Capital analyst Greg Pardy wrote that China’s secular oil demand growth story appears far from over, but a visit to the country in May pointed toward decelerating consumption growth in 2005 toward 500,000 bpd.

Another source of trouble could come from the ‘hot money’ chasing oil’s returns.

According to Bloomberg, Mike Rothman of International Strategy & Investment wrote in an early July report to clients that $18 to $20 of the cost of a barrel of oil is the result of pure speculation. He noted that from January 2000 to March 2004, more than half of the changes in crude’s price could be explained by the variation in U.S. inventories. If the same relationship still held, the analyst feels current U.S. inventories would produce a price of around $25 a barrel.

This begs the question - what happens if U.S. short-term interest rates keep rising, making it more expensive for hedge funds and other speculators to make leveraged bets on future price increases?

So where to now?

As Scotia Capital’s Pardy so adroitly put it, “we can humbly admit that there is no magical formula to nail down crude prices.”

His own outlook for WTI is $51.75 in 2005 and $52.50 in 2006.

The analyst believes that OPEC’s power to influence crude prices through quotas and production levels has been undermined by its lack of spare capacity, which has severed the direct relationship between inventories and prices. And going forward, “pure market forces remain firmly in control of crude oil prices.”

Oil, not democracy driving U.S. foreign policy

This is old news, or should be by now. Even so, I found it posted today at www.pasadenastarnews.com. As oil becomes more of a priority, there will be more pressure by the West exerted on oil producing/Islamic countries, and you can bet we're going to see more conflict from those who already find the Western presence in the Middle East intolerable.

By Hannah Naiditch

IT is mind-boggling to watch the media take our latest mission to "spread democracy' seriously, while the issue of oil has mysteriously disappeared.

The history of oil started with John D. Rockefeller, who bought his first oil refinery in 1862. He recognized the important role oil would play in America's future. He used brutal methods to crush his competition and by the late 1800s his dream became reality. His company, known as Standard Oil, accounted for 90 percent of our oil export.

Oil was found in various parts of the United States, giving rise to Texaco Oil, Mobil Oil and Exxon Oil. Texaco Oil opted not to pump off the Louisiana coast in order to maximize profits. Exxon Oil and Mobil Oil made big profits while 3,000 small independent gas stations had to close shop.

Overproduction resulted in cheaper prices and smaller profits while cut in productions created higher prices and artificial shortages at will. Both methods were used by all competitors and are still used today.

During the 1950s the United States with only 6 percent of the world's population, accounted for one-third of the world's oil consumption. Oil was so cheap that some of the biggest oil producers banded together and in 1960 they formed OPEC.

10 of the 13 OPEC members are Islamic countries.

In the early 1970s OPEC used oil as a political weapon. By sharply reducing the amount of oil exported to the U.S., the price of oil greatly increased. It resulted in long lines for motorists to fill up, and it triggered a worldwide recession.

It was F. D. Roosevelt who made a deal with the Saudis. The United States would protect Saudi Arabia's monarchy from being overthrown, and in return the United States would get access and influence as far as their oil is concerned. Oil was one of the reasons why Milosevic became a target. He denied us a military base and an oil pipeline from the oil-rich Caucusus area on the Russian border.

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez was democratically elected by a landslide. Venezuela also has major oil reserves. It was not surprising that we were implicated in a recent attempted coup to get rid of him.

In 1958 Eisenhower sent the marines to Lebanon to make sure that the pro-American government stayed in power. Lebanon was of strategic importance in this oil-rich region.

Somalia was more than a humanitarian mission to save children from starvation. Four American oil companies owned the mineral rights which they had been granted by former dictator Barre, and which they had been unable to exploit because of political chaos. We moved against Aidid, the most powerful of the warlords, who was responsible for the overthrow of Barre. It all turned out to be a dismal failure when dead Americans were dragged through the streets and we had to withdraw.

In Sudan Western and Asian oil companies have taken sides in one of the longest and most destructive civil wars and they ruthlessly protect their interests.

U.S. firms are showing a new interest in Libya's oil wealth.

We attacked Afghanistan as part of the war on terrorism, but it must have occurred to former oilmen Bush and Cheney that Afghanistan offered a great opportunity to expand American geopolitical influence to South-Central Asia and the Caspian basin by building an oil pipeline through their strategically located land.

Since 9/11 our foreign policy has tried to link our global war on terrorism with our global effort to expand American access to foreign oil.

In Georgia we are conducting military training operations and we are deploying U.S. Special Forces advisers with the stated purpose to help the Georgian forces to fight terrorists. It is also evident that we are there to protect the pipelines that will carry the oil from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

We built permanent military rases in that region. The Bush administration and private U.S. foundations have funded "pro- democracy' organizations to break the Russian monopoly in that region. But it is really democracy that we are concerned about, or is it our insatiable need for oil?

In Columbia our stated interest is to fight the war on drugs, but we are also aiding the military to protect the pipeline of Occidental Oil. And the list goes on.

Although 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia and although Osama Bin Laden himself is Saudi and the Saudis are exporting an extremist philosophy, we chose to attack Iraq instead. But why Iraq? Did we go to war to stop a killer, a man worse than Hitler? Was it WMD and the threat of a mushroom cloud?

Iraq happens to sit on top of one of the largest oil reserves in the world. The oil is close to the surface and therefore cheap and easy to retrieve. It was the oil fields that we protected when we invaded Iraq, and it was and still is oil and dreams of empire that the war in Iraq is all about.

Blood for oil is not a good selling point, and young Americans would not be willing to risk their lives for it. The fact that Saddam Hussein nationalized the oil companies in 1972 did not help either. We went to war to establish a powerful military presence in the Middle East and to enable us to control the production and price of oil. As Chambers Johnston the author of Blowback said "There was never a plan to leave Iraq because there is no intention of leaving Iraq'.

Most of the world is aware of this agenda except the American people who have bought into the "spreading democracy' rhetoric. Democracy cannot be delivered by shock and awe bombing and it cannot be achieved and maintained under foreign occupation.

From:
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/
Stories/0,1413,206~11851~2967012,00.html

A Squirrel and a Tomato

Here's a tip if you're struggling to train (especially in the mornings):

Put your clothes out (and everything else you'll need) the night before, and set an alarm for the latest possible time. It may seem like a small thing, but in the morning, small things are what you don't want to do. Put a drink in the freezer (if it's going to be hot), and have some energetic music ready in the morning to get you going while you get ready.
Make sure you have the right nutrition waiting for you when you get back. Bananas and Powerade do it for me.
When you wake up, just think about getting yourself out the door. Once you're at the door, you'll be glad you got up, and begin to feel how good it is to be out.


After a Soju Sleep delivered me to a 5:20am wake up (I woke up before the alarm went off, which was set to play the Lost In Translation song: Are You Awake?), I opened the blinds and saw the sky was pretty grim and grey. It was yesterday too, but when I walked to the Lake yesterday it was balmly and breezy. Rain or shine, there was no way I was going to pass up this cycle, especially with the sights and sounds of stage 14 (courtesy of AFN's 2am TDF broadcast) still buzzing in my brain.

I had put my clothes out, water bottles in the freezer, but left one thing undone: to unscrew my wheel magnet from my Zipp wheel, so only got on the road at about 6:10am. The temperature must have been in the low 20's. Let's check...
My Polar gives me an average temperature of 22C, and a maximum of 24, which is perfect cycling weather.
My biggest concern was the liquid gash on my bum. During Tuesday's ride, I felt a pinching sensation, which grew progressively worse...until it became a biting/tearing/agonising feeling. I bought a new pair of Saeco shorts in South Africa, at the Argus Expo. They looked a lot inferior to the ones I bought here, and they proved to be so. The seams sit out far too much, and I was sitting on part of seam and rubbing against it and the saddle during my 3h20m cycle. The result of this was a wound that hurts whenever I sit down. If I sort of lie on a chair, then it's less painful. What's worse is since the outer layer of skin has been gouged out, there's a wound now that simply won't heal, and is sort of gelatinous the whole time. Ew, I know. I have a special powder for drying up wounds of this sort, but given the very humid conditions, and the fact that the wound is in the warmest, sweatiest part of my body, well, nearly a week later it is still...well, gross.

So today I opted for my RIDE magazine shorts, which has a huge shammy and they're just really comfortable. Most of the way, I felt pretty comfortable, which says a lot for those shorts. I'm tempted to burn the other shorts, but I guess it's possible that once I'm slimmer they'll be less problemmatic.

I rode in and out of a few light drizzles. Cycling in the rain is usually miserable, but this was quite pleasant. Like a soft cool cushion. Sunday mornings are the best time to go cycling because everyone is sleeping late or hungover or off to church, which leaves the roads quiet and ready for me. Crappy weather also keeps families from taking the kids on an outing. Today was exceedingly quiet.

At Imjingak (about 38km out) I noticed some flags fluttering along the long straight highway - quite an attractive area this, and the flags looked handsome framing the road in red and gray. I stopped at a bridge and...well...found one flag lying on the road. I'm sure the wind just blew it off (evil grin), despite each one being tied in 3 or 4 places with wire and plastic ties. Then I went around an offramp that was also festooned with these flags, and lo and behold, as soon as no cars were in sight, another flag magically drifted down and found its way into the back of my cycling shirt. Really bizarre flag behaviour. So I really (really) just did my civic duty and tucked them into the back of my shirt. They'll make nice decorative accoutrements for my apartment.

Enjoyed the road back. Used some fresh water out of my bottle to wash my glasses. The most annoying thing about rain is that your vision gets a bit fuzzy as the droplets build up on the lenses.
The fields are incredibly green, almost luminous, in the rain. It's a good feeling to be out there in the early morning, and amazing that a racing machine like the Cannondale CAAD can move you so far and wide so effortlessly.

I didn't go via the huge LG/Philips complex this time, which meant I had to go up a fairly steep climb.
My average heart rate today was 144bpm, but on this climb it shot up to 169. That's about 95-98% of my max, on a bicycle anyway. I hit the 170's in Bloemfontein earlier this year trying to stay with the elite bunches (and failing).
Anyway, was pretty winded and a little dizzy afterwards, but felt glad that I'd shocked my body with something that would really get the blood pumping the the globules of fat in motion.

I had this peculiar vision of my butt as this huge, overripe tomato being squeezed against an upturned spoon. The tomato is so big and heavy (and the spoon quite small, that the sides of the tomato eventually begin to rupture. Now substitute big fat arse for tomato and narrow slr saddle for the spoon.

Felt a bit dizzy and tired at 50km, which gives me an idea how much I'm likely to suffer in Cheolwon which is almost twice that (90km).
Ate one of those gelatin thingies and felt better a while later.
There's a long road flat, straight road through gorgeous countryside, which eventually crosses a wide river (when you look down there are usually a couple of people fishing on its banks) and then the road gets squeezed into one narrow lane with huge bunkers and steel stuff on the sides. You find things like this, often fortified cement and usually on the top of roads (there's another one at the top of that steep climb I mentioned). If North Korea ever invades, and try to drive their tanks in Seoul, then these structures will be exploded or filled with troops (there are turrets in a lot of them too).

As I passed through the narrow lane (can be dangerous as oncoming trucks and cars sometimes play chicken with each other, and they tend to ignore cyclists) a squirrel bounded across the narrow path, just a metre or so in front of me. Had big fluffy tufts on its ears. Really cute in a Disney sort of way. Felt for the critter, 'cos he had nowhere much to do, and neither did I, as two cars waited for me to come out, and I think one was whooshing up behind me.

Took it easy the rest of the way, mindful of the increasing traffic as I approached the outer limits of Ilsan. Chose a better route this time, the one I always took when I lived in Bamgashi, and headed past Corneli's apartment and LaFesta into Lake Park. That's a nice way to round off the ride. Saw a lot of Ilan Marathon Runners (in orange) stretching near the Lake.

Got back to my apartment in 2h56m56sec, did an extra 200m so I could get the kilometres to tick over to exactly 80km.
Here is some more data from today's cycle:

2733 kcalories
350 metres of vertical climbing
Average altitude: 28m Above Sea Level.
Average speed 27.1km/h (max 54.5km/h)

I'd like to get my average speed up to 30km/h at least. Today with the slick roads and flag fetching, speed wasn't really a priority as much as getting some distance into my legs.
After today's cycle I'm sure my body will throw on another 1-2kg like it did last time.
Will swim this evening and check my weight.

Looking forward to watching Stage 15 tonight. It's the make or break stage, the most difficult of the whole Tour, and we'll see whether Lance has it in him to hold onto his yellow jersey. If he can withstand the attacks of other riders, especially guys like Basso, today, then he'll probably win this tour too. This is the last real chance other riders have to take time out of Lance.

I've also downloaded the movie Fantastic Four. So going to watch that and relax. It's still early: 10:39am. Nice to have cycled, showered and now have the rest of the day ahead to relax and enjoy.

TDF: Overall Results After Stage 14

1. Lance ARMSTRONG 55:58:17
2. Mickael RASMUSSEN 1:41 behind
3. Ivan BASSO 2:46
4. Jan ULLRICH 4:34
5. Levi LEIPHEIMER 4:45
6. Floyd LANDIS 5:03
7. Francisco MANCEBO 5:03
8. Andréas KLÖDEN 5:38
9. Alexandre VINOKOUROV 7:09
10. Christophe MOREAU 8:37

Firemen spray water on the cyclists as they ride by during the 14th stage of the 92nd Tour de France cycling race between Agde and Ax-Trois-Domaines. American Lance Armstrong retained the yellow jersey while Austrian Georg Totschnig won the stage.
(AFP/Joel Saget)

The picture below is of a rider, Valverde I think, 5th overall, and in his first Tour, abandoning. I think he was suffering from tendonitus.

Armstrong impressive on first Pyrenean stage won by Totschnig
July 16, 2005

AX-TROIS-DOMAINES, France (AFP) - Austria's Georg Totschnig of the Gerolsteiner team won the 14th stage of the Tour de France here on the first day of three in the Pyrenees.

American Lance Armstrong retained the race leader's yellow jersey he is aiming to win for a seventh consecutive time ahead of his retirement, when the race climaxes on July 24, after finishing second on Saturday at just under a minute.

Italian Ivan Basso finished a few metres behind, with another yellow jersey contender, 1997 winner Jan Ullrich, finishing at around 10secs behind Armstrong.

Armstrong holds a lead of 1min 41sec over Dane Michael Rasmussen.

Ullrich's teammate Alexandre Vinokourov was one of the biggest losers on the day, the Kazakh finishing at nearly three minutes behind.

Totschnig meanwhile wins his first Tour de France stage at the age of 33 years old, and it is also Austria's first win on the Tour in the post-war period.

Armstrong, whose closest real challenger Basso is third overall still 2min 46sec behind, has struck another blow to his rivals, although it was small and he will however have to be on his guard in Sunday's stage from Lezat-sur-Leze to St-Lary-Soulan.

Held over 205km, it has a total of 49.2 km of climbing over five cols before arriving at the summit finish of Pla d'Adet and is a potential race decider.

Armstrong managed the first of the three days in the Pyrenees with relative ease - although at the foot of the day's main difficulty, the 15.1km climb over the Porte de Pailheres, he was abandoned by his Discovery Channel team mates.

An earlier attack by a small group of riders had ultimately left Totschnig and Italian Stefano Garzelli with a four-minute lead on Armstrong's chasing group at the foot of the last, 7.9km climb to Ax-Trois-Domaines.

Earlier, on the climb to the summit of Pailheres, some of whose average gradients were a muscle-crunching 10.5 percent, a battle of nerves was held between Armstrong and all his main rivals for the yellow jersey.

Vinokourov was left trailing early on the climb, and it was left to Armstrong, Ullrich, Basso, and Floyd Landis to keep an eye on each other for any attacks.

As expected, there were no real attempts from either Armstrong or Ullrich to attack on the day's second last climb. That was more expected to happen on the climb to the Pyrenean ski station at 1337 metres altitude.

Armstrong's group came over the summit of the Pailheres col with nearly a four-minute deficit to Totschnig, who had left Garzelli in his wake in the final kilometres of the day's penultimate climb.

However after just a few kilometres of the last climb Basso, perhaps the most quiet of the yellow jersey challengers so far in the race, decided to increase the pace.

Armstrong, with whom the Italian CSC rider had been speaking earlier on the stage as Ullrich sat behind them, jumped quickly on his wheel and was followed by Ullrich.

Basso's brief burst of speed proved too much for Landis, Armstrong's former US Postal team-mate but now at Phonak, and with only four kilometres from the summit it was Basso, Armstrong and Ullrich who were racing behind Garzelli and Totschnig.

Totschnig was all on his own, but he did well to hold on to his lead.

Behind him, Armstrong's acceleration a kilometre from the finish proved too much for Ullrich who was left trailing.

Grace's First Ironman

I really had no idea what to expect on the day of my very first ironman and in the week leading up I had been racked with nerves. I checked and re-checked my nutrition plan. My brain seemed to be working overtime and double time as I mentally went through the course.
I had broken it up in to small sections and constantly went over each. Mostly, I was trying to figure out what to do if I panicked in the swim, should I:

Breathe deeply (as Chrissie my sister told me).

Practice my Shakespeare lines (as my acting agent told me - and by the way, don't laugh, it works quite well!).

Make sure I don't end up on the inside ropes of the course where apparently everyone would squash me!

Don�t stop or I�d get �swum over..�

Flip over on my back and do �backstroke� and have a look around me�

Jump on someone�s feet to get a good draft from them (surely with 1600 people in the water there is a fairly decent draft anyway?!)

Make sure my right arm is catching water properly/pull my tummy in/imagine I am in a bubble ��all this and only thinking about the swim! I decided that by the time I had done some, or all of the above my panic attack would have to be over! My swim in Tasmania had scared the life out of me and it strange how things work out as someone once told me that,

�Your greatest fears have already happened.�


I wake up for breakfast at 2am. (This later set a very annoying body clock for about four days waking up at 2am and not being able to sleep!) It wasn�t really the most civilised breakfast; � most of a water bottle with 4 to 5 scoops of HI-5 e-source and 3 pieces of toast with vegemite. Wow, I can�t believe it is nearly race morning and I wonder if I will get back to sleep. Miraculousy, I do and suddenly it is 4:15am and I jump up out of bed. I cover my face and body with the most long-lasting sunscreen I have and sip from my water bottle and nibble a protein bar.

I grab the gear bag I had prepared the night before and sneak in to say goodbye to Billy, John and Mum. (not all in the same bed don�t worry!) Outside, the air is completely still and I hope it will be similar to this on the bike later on. I get to the car and notice a piece of paper on the windscreen. It is a note, a beautiful little good luck letter from John, encouraging me in all the ways I need. The fact that he was there with Billy and Mum meant so goddamn much to me. Its funny how you do these things and challenge yourself but if you don�t have your loved ones to share it with you at the end of the day whether it be at the race or at home later, then what is the point? I nearly cried and I hadn�t even left home yet�.. it was gonna be a big day! I jump in the car and suddenly think �What if I haven�t got my wetsuit and goggles in my bag? (even though I had checked this at least 5 times the night before). I pull over to check, of course they are there. A car goes past me � hmmm, they must be ironman people too ..I wonder how they feel I and it all seems a little surreal.

As I walk to the marquee and go to my bike the video cameras are in my face, as I am one of the �featured athletes.� The producer had told me that they would be specifically watching me at the swim start as they knew my history for freaking out and that I would be terribly nervous � GREAT, just what I needed. (Was I supposed to wave at them or pretend they weren�t there?? I wasn�t too sure so I did both!) I readied my nutrition bars and gels, checked my tires, checked my cadence worked, checked my speedo, checked my wheels weren�t rubbing on brakes, wiped down the seat, checked my heart rate monitor was working, checked my bidons were ready��my gosh is that everything� then I checked it all all over again!!!! Off to the portaloos. I couldn�t believe how massive the lines were (or the smell). The portaloos at an ironman start really are the definition of �shitting yourself!� One guy who took really, really long, recieved a cheer from us all waiting � he quickly ducked away, however the poor thing soon found himself walking past us again for another cheer as he had forgotten his water bottle!

I recieved some great advice from Jodie Morris: �it doesn�t really matter where you start in the swim, it just depends who the people are around you as to how �roughed up� you will be.� Before I knew it, we were in the water and the gun had gone. Remarkably for the first 30 seconds I didn't really get hit; there were people very close, but no hitting. Then it got worse. I tried to focus on relaxing when I could and just �getting through� the times when I was getting hit or pushed under. Wayne Gale gave me a great piece of advice to remember in ironman,

�there are going to be times when you feel like crap and just get through them � and enjoy the times when you feel good.�

Before long I felt myself up against something.. uh oh, it was the ropes�but I was okay and not getting squashed - cool! Before long I was at the end corner and up against the ropes. I received a lovely surprise, everyone in front of me on the inside stopped swimming � so I did too, and lo an behold we held on to the ropes as we were whirled around the corner by everyone else as if we were in a washing machine! No one told me about this I thought, as our heads bobbed up and down!! How cool, but we were back to swimming in a matter of seconds. One lap was soon down � I always start to feel good at about the 1900m mark so I started swimming a bit more strongly. I headed for home thinking its okay, you probably have not done a good time, if its 1hr 20 that is fine, or even more I had survived the swim. I waded out and saw 1hr18 on the clock � oh, okay I thought�. Then I looked closer 1:08 My GOSH, A Personal Best! I giggled to myself as I remembered my Tasi swim for half the distance had taken 1:01!!

On to the bike. On the way out of transition I heard people yelling �MOUSTAKAS� I was sure there could only be one, and that he was from the best bike shop in town .. YES, It was Anthony coming out of the swim transition just in front of me on his pink Giant bike too! How exciting! I chased him down and we giggled all the way out of transition, trying to stay together where the photographers were to get a picture! Then I reached for my drink bottle and promptly dropped it. Shit.. I knew it was hot and it was VITAL for me to drink drink drink drink today. It was also carrying some of my energy but I worked it out that the next drink station was close enough. I had broken the ride into 30k intervals thanks to John Hill and was only allowed to think of one at a time � checking my nutrition, heart rate and that I was drinking enough all the time. The bike ride was fun.. highlights included�..

#�GO PINKY GO PINKY� being yelled at me from Steven G, my sisters boyfriend � I couldn�t work out what he was doing behind me as he is a good swimmer. �What the hell are you doing back here I yelled?�

# Riding past all my family and friends � YAY I smiled and they yelled SOO LOUDLY!

# Riding off the road into the fence as I didn�t turn fast enough at the Coomba Park Road turnaround�spot the beginner hey!

# Panicking at the end because I didn�t think I had eaten enough and taking in a couple of squirts of my emergency food drink bottle (I later worked out this would have been equivalent to too many carbohydrate all at once and probably caused my tummy problems later in the run � silly, silly me)

The last 10k of the bike hurt me and I think I slowed a lot � there was a head wind and it just seemed tougher but I made it into transition. As I got off my bike my head spun and I had a fleeting terrifying moment that I was about to faint� If I fainted would they let me still finish??� DON�T FAINT GRACE, just find your transition bag. I grabbed it and felt like I was tiptoeing into transition. On to the run. Ohhh I didn�t feel so good but I had a pace I wanted to do for the first 5k loop and though it felt yukky I stuck to it for the first 5k. Then my tummy started gurgling and cramping. I was looking for a portaloo and couldn�t see one. Hmmm no bushes either although, there were gardens - but there were people in them watching the race. I don�t think they would appreciate me pooing on their rose bushes but I honestly didn�t really care too much at that point. Needless to say, I found lots of portaloos and lots of cars and bushes and trees to hide behind � no one else in the race cared � they were all in their own world of hurt. The middle 20k were not good and especially with the cameras on me I didn�t really want to finish the race in a smelly state. My goals changed from doing my pace, to making sure I finished. Maybe it was a good thing as I may have �blown up� anyway had I stuck to my pace?? I will never know.

It was as I was feeling this horrendous that a group of guys yelled out�.

�You�re Hot���

I couldn�t believe they could think that now and yelled so back at them.

They just laughed and returned �What r u doing later on?�

Oh my god I thought�.. Men!!!!� I couldn�t help it but called out,

�Dunno, I was thinking of going for a run!�

Funny how little things like that amuse you in a race.

The last 16k of the run was much better. My stomach had settled, though I was still forcing gels down and nearly vomiting as I ate them. It became a little cooler and I was becoming confident that I was really going to finish and I was excited � I couldn�t believe that this was it!!!

I made my way to the finish picking up the pace in the last few kilometers. I knew Billy was going to be there and I wanted to run with him. The crowd was literally roaring and atmosphere was absolutely electric!. I spotted Billy and he sprinted toward me and the crowd cheered more. (Oh shit, I thought, as for a second he was going to try to jump into my arms and that would have been a disaster as my legs clearly weren�t up to it!) But we turned around and ran together for the line. I couldn�t stop looking at his face - he had the biggest grin on and this cute little blue hat and he was yelling �mummy we won we won.� I grabbed his hand and really, really couldn�t stop looking at him. BEST MEMORY EVER.

We got over the line and I couldn�t stop kissing him. Mum, John Jodie and Billy were all there kissing and hugging. I couldn�t believe it was over. I had done it!!! I had bloody done it! I had been dreaming all week about the race and kept waking up realizing and worrying that the race was still ahead of me and I was terrified right now that I would wake up and I still have the whole race to do!!!!!! IT was awesome! Then I was interviewed and John Hill and Mona and Steven came over and John said he was proud and I had done a decent enough time for me and it was all a bit overwhelming!

So what now? I am still learning so much about myself from this sport. I am more passionate about it than I have been anything else for a long time. (Obsessed I suppose you are thinking and you are probably right!)

I have set my sites on Korea. Someone told me when you know you want to do something you get a buzz and I really have that buzz about about Korea. 135 days. I will get to train with incredible people, get to push myself, learn how to motivate myself, be inspired by others and smile. I�ll enjoy food when I�m really hungry, showers when I�m really sweaty and bed when I�m exhausted. I know, it will be a cold winter and some times I�ll wonder what I�m doing and go up and down the motivation rollercoaster but most times, I�ll enjoy it. Whatever happens, I will try to remember it is all a gift, and just like in the race and as in life, get through the shit times and enjoy the good ones!

OHHH now I have gone all sentimental. If you had asked me after doing the Port Macquarie Long course which was four weeks before Forster, I didn�t even think I would make it to race Forster let alone finish and to finish well. Although I never gave up on myself.

Oh yeah � and I have since firmly decided that cameras or no cameras I am not toilet stopping in Korea! My sister Fiona had great joy in telling me that our sister Caroline had said that the �poo thing happens to lots of people� and �Robert De Costella just kept on running.� GRRR if its good enough for Deeks, its good enough for me. So this is a warning to all those unfortunate to watch me running marathons in the future � I didn�t get the nickname Gracie-pops during toilet training as a toddler for nothing!!

The difference between conventional 'beauty' and real beauty, in my opinion, is a body that is really strong and healthy. Not starved and dieted into shape. Grace's talent (one of them ) is in long distance running.

Grace McClure
MY CHILDHOOD

I was raised on an outback isolated sheep and cattle station in far Western New South Wales; it certainly was a far cry from the perceived glamour and bright lights of the entertainment industry.

I was the youngest of five daughters and being the only girls we were left with no choice but to take on all the traditionally male roles on the station. We had a lot of fun and worked hard at everything from mustering sheep and cattle, to digging trenches, riding motorbikes and (as far fetched as it sounds!!) actually having to kill the venomous snakes which would sleep on our doorsteps in the summer. As our closest town was eighty kilometres away we were educated via "School Of The Air." This required us to attend one, half-hour lesson talking on transceiver radio with other isolated children each day, and complete the remainder of our studies by post.

It was a beautiful, unique and valuable childhood which taught me to have a go at anything, gave me an ongoing love of nature and taught me the value of determination, hard work and most importantly to never, ever give up. I love the outback, the mateship, the real people, their values and the entire lifestyle of the country.

For me, it is certainly true that you might take the girl out of the country, but you will never take the country out of the girl. After primary school I attended Pembroke School in Adelaide which I absoloutely adored and eventually achieved a NSW equivalent TER of 97.3. Drama was my main interest at school and ever since I can remember, I have dreamed of being an actress and TV presenter. .

Temptations

I've been receiving invitations from Ironman Korea. The latest features a picture of a blonde (Grace McClure from Australia, who is a sports' model) in a black bikini with this message:

GRACE McCLURE
I am now in the full swing of Ironman training now and can't wait to head over to Korea for the Ironman on August 28th. The 3.8k swim, 180km bike and 42km run will be held on the exotic island of Jeju, just south of the Korean peninsula. We will swim the mystical coastal waters of Jeju, ride through the centre of the island under the watchful glare of the dormant volcano, Mount Halla, and triumphantly cross the finish line in the festive background of the Jeju World Cup Stadium.....28th! (that’s the plan anyway!)

It all sounds rather romantic doesn't it ....although I'm pretty sure that will be the last thing on my mind on race day. As with my Ironman Australia experience, I plan to enjoy one big long day of adventure, to allow every thing that happens to be seen as a gift and to run without fear.
See you there
Grace McClure

For more information about Grace, please visit www.gracemcclure.com.au

Well, put that way it does sound quite romantic. In reality, I am hardly fit enough for triathlons a fifth the Ironman distance right now. Next week is the half Ironman at Cheolwon, and I'll have some idea of my readiness for anything ultra after that.

I am also tempted to buy and invest in gold at this point. I see global inflation (due to perpetually rising oil prices) going in a steady upward trend from November of this year. I'd like to have some money in gold before then. But keep an eye on the price of gold anyway. As oil rises, so will gold, as a hedge against the value of everything else falling.

It's a strange irony that the country that benefits most from the world's Peak Oil woes (and surrounding economic reverberations) will be South Africa, simply because we are a country whose economy is largely based on mineral wealth, in particular gold and diamonds.

Gold Rises as Crude Oil Rebounds, Boosting Inflation Concerns

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- Gold rose in New York, erasing earlier losses, as crude-oil prices rebounded, boosting the precious metal's appeal as a hedge against inflation.

E.R. for Hard Drives

By ERIC A. TAUB
Published: July 14, 2005

NOVATO, Calif. - He knew it was important, but backing up his hard drive was the last thing on Ryan Risdal's mind. Mr. Risdal, 35, was too busy rearing four children and caring for his ill wife.

The company's co-founder, Scott Gaidano, says that hard drives are unreliable. Still, many users, including Mr. Gaidano, fail to back up.

One day after her death last August, Mr. Risdal was trying to recover some pictures from his computer to display at his wife's funeral. But the computer would not cooperate, and the local repair shop told him he was out of luck. The drive was inoperable, and nothing could be retrieved.

"I had six years of digital pictures on the drive, and I hadn't backed up in years," said Mr. Risdal, a maintenance supervisor in Grass Valley, Calif., in the Gold Rush country northeast of Sacramento.

According to those in the data recovery business, computer users who think they can escape Mr. Risdal's fate are mistaken. "Eventually, every hard drive will fail," some even within months, said Todd Johnson, vice president for operations at OnTrack Data Recovery (www.ontrack.com), a firm specializing in recovering digital files.

The local repair shop referred Mr. Risdal to DriveSavers (www.drivesavers.com), another company offering data retrieval from hard drives, flash memory, diskettes and optical media. After several days' work, DriveSavers had recovered his entire photo library.

If all computer users backed up their hard drives, the data recovery industry would barely exist. But the routine, like flossing teeth, is practiced regularly by few.

And as hard drive capacity explodes, the consequences of catastrophic failure mushroom. Hard drives now store not just documents but photos, music and movies as well, electronically embedded on a platter spinning at 10,000 revolutions a minute (300 times the speed of an LP record); access is by a read/write head floating a hair's breadth above, and flying back and forth at 60 miles an hour.

If the head falls onto the platter or picks up a jot of dust, the data can be rendered unreadable.

Not every hard drive's files can be recovered, but rates are improving. "Eight years ago, 50 percent of our drives could not be restored," said Scott Gaidano, DriveSavers' co-founder. Now up to 90 percent of the data can be salvaged from 85 to 90 percent of drives, Mr. Gaidano said.

The cost can run to several thousand dollars - the bigger the rush, the higher the price.

Mr. Gaidano says that hard drives are so unreliable that they "should not exist today." Yet they are ubiquitous - in laptops that are tossed onto airport security belts, and on iPods and camcorders used while jogging and maneuvering around moguls. When they fail, panic is often the reflex. Many call Mr. Johnson's company, or ActionFront, DriveSavers and ESS Data Recovery, fearing that their most crucial records and most cherished memories have just been incinerated.

DriveSavers employs Kelly Chessen, a former suicide-prevention counselor, to calm distraught customers.

"You get nervousness, anger, crying," Ms. Chessen said. "People fear they'll lose their jobs" if the data is not recovered. And at times they say that life will no longer be worth living. "I ask them if they're really thinking about committing suicide," she said. Fortunately, no one has.

DriveSavers operates from an anonymous office building in Novato, 24 miles north of San Francisco, that houses a "clean room" for inspecting drives and separate data extraction rooms for the most common computer operating systems.

DriveSavers receives some units that to most would look unsalvageable. Outside its executive offices, the company displays some of its more challenging successes: hard drives that have been burned, submerged in salt water or run over by trucks.

Depending on the size of the drive, the complexity of the problem and the requested turnaround time, recovery costs at DriveSavers range from $500 for the slowest service - five to seven days - and fewest recoverable files, to $8,900 for a rush job, which will begin the moment the drive arrives and continue around the clock until the data has been extracted.

For those customers who can wait up to seven days, recovery tops out at $2,700 for a drive up to 600 gigabytes. For one- to two-day turnaround, expect to pay $900 to $3,900. When nothing can be recovered - typically when drives cannot spin or data has been overwritten - DriveSavers charges a $200 inspection fee.

After hearing of Mr. Risdal's plight, DriveSavers restored his data free, and even bought Christmas presents for his children.

But for most, rescue comes at a steep price. "I learned a very important lesson and it cost me a lot of money," said John DeVries, general manager of a sporting goods company in Auburn, N.Y.

In May, Mr. DeVries's three-year-old hard drive crashed on his Dell Latitude x200 laptop, taking with it a year's worth of company e-mail, family photos and 600 business contacts stored in Outlook.

"I was really panicked. I really felt lost; it was everything I had," said Mr. DeVries, who knew to back up but had not done so in several months. He paid $2,700 to get all his files back.When a drive arrives at DriveSavers or one of its competitors, it is typically inspected in the clean room to prevent dust contamination. If it got wet, it is submerged in a solvent to remove residue. Because data can be retrieved only from operating drives, the company will try to get the mechanism running temporarily - in the case of DriveSavers, by using components from its inventory of more than 10,000 different models.

A copy of the drive's contents is then recorded on a server for protection and another copy is transferred to a functioning hard drive. Using commercial and proprietary software tools, the company extracts the data from that copy. Retrieved files are sent to the customer using DVD's, a new hard drive or Internet file transfer.

The company keeps all files confidential, and erases them from its servers one month after delivery to the customer. Child pornography, however, is not covered by the confidentiality agreement.

Is it worth spending thousands of dollars to retrieve files? It was for William Storkson, a motion picture sound designer in Novato who lost four reels of work on the independent film "Target Audience 9.1" when an external drive connected to his Apple Power Mac G5 malfunctioned. He had bought the drive as a backup three months earlier, when his Mac's two-year-old external drive started to falter. That drive was by this time dead.

"To rebuild the data from scratch would have taken me one to two months of 40-hour weeks," he said.

Instead Mr. Storkson paid DriveSavers $2,300, and in three days he had all his files back.

Last November, Suzy Shechtman of Great Neck, N.Y., was editing scenes for "The Hidden Life," a film about an order of Episcopalian nuns, when the six-month-old, 200-gigabyte drive failed on her Power Mac G4. She tried to revive it with various commercial disk utility programs, but nothing worked.

"I had bought a second hard drive and never used it to back up, though I meant to," Ms. Shechtman said. "I figured the project was all over."

Fortunately, the drive maker, Western Digital, agreed to pick up the recovery cost. Ms. Shechtman now keeps multiple copies on two 200-gigabyte drives and one 600-gigabyte internal drive. But even that is not necessarily a fail-safe strategy. "Out of six drives I've bought, five have been replaced, and the longest lasted only one year," she said.

But when it comes to backing up data, most people remain unconcerned - even Mr. Gaidano, despite all the troubles he has seen.

"I've lost more data than most, because I do not back up my laptop," he said. "The day I back up is the day I should shut the company down."

A Poverty of Dignity and a Wealth of Rage

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: July 15, 2005

A few years ago I was visiting Bahrain and sitting with friends in a fish restaurant when news appeared on an overhead TV about Muslim terrorists, men and women, who had taken hostages in Russia. What struck me, though, was the instinctive reaction of the Bahraini businessman sitting next to me, who muttered under his breath, "Why are we in every story?" The "we" in question was Muslims.

The answer to that question is one of the most important issues in geopolitics today: Why are young Sunni Muslim males, from London to Riyadh and Bali to Baghdad, so willing to blow up themselves and others in the name of their religion? Of course, not all Muslims are suicide bombers; it would be ludicrous to suggest that.

But virtually all suicide bombers, of late, have been Sunni Muslims. There are a lot of angry people in the world. Angry Mexicans. Angry Africans. Angry Norwegians. But the only ones who seem to feel entitled and motivated to kill themselves and totally innocent people, including other Muslims, over their anger are young Sunni radicals. What is going on?

Neither we nor the Muslim world can run away from this question any longer. This is especially true when it comes to people like Muhammad Bouyeri - a Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin who last year tracked down the Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, a critic of Islamic intolerance, on an Amsterdam street, shot him 15 times and slit his throat with a butcher knife. He told a Dutch court on the final day of his trial on Tuesday: "I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion."

Clearly, several things are at work. One is that Europe is not a melting pot and has never adequately integrated its Muslim minorities, who, as The Financial Times put it, often find themselves "cut off from their country, language and culture of origin" without being assimilated into Europe, making them easy prey for peddlers of a new jihadist identity.

Also at work is Sunni Islam's struggle with modernity. Islam has a long tradition of tolerating other religions, but only on the basis of the supremacy of Islam, not equality with Islam. Islam's self-identity is that it is the authentic and ideal expression of monotheism. Muslims are raised with the view that Islam is God 3.0, Christianity is God 2.0, Judaism is God 1.0, and Hinduism is God 0.0.

Part of what seems to be going on with these young Muslim males is that they are, on the one hand, tempted by Western society, and ashamed of being tempted. On the other hand, they are humiliated by Western society because while Sunni Islamic civilization is supposed to be superior, its decision to ban the reform and reinterpretation of Islam since the 12th century has choked the spirit of innovation out of Muslim lands, and left the Islamic world less powerful, less economically developed, less technically advanced than God 2.0, 1.0 and 0.0.

"Some of these young Muslim men are tempted by a civilization they consider morally inferior, and they are humiliated by the fact that, while having been taught their faith is supreme, other civilizations seem to be doing much better," said Raymond Stock, the Cairo-based biographer and translator of Naguib Mahfouz. "When the inner conflict becomes too great, some are turned by recruiters to seek the sick prestige of 'martyrdom' by fighting the allegedly unjust occupation of Muslim lands and the 'decadence' in our own."

This is not about the poverty of money. This is about the poverty of dignity and the rage it can trigger.

One of the London bombers was married, with a young child and another on the way. I can understand, but never accept, suicide bombing in Iraq or Israel as part of a nationalist struggle. But when a British Muslim citizen, nurtured by that society, just indiscriminately blows up his neighbors and leaves behind a baby and pregnant wife, to me he has to be in the grip of a dangerous cult or preacher - dangerous to his faith community and to the world.

How does that happen? Britain's Independent newspaper described one of the bombers, Hasib Hussain, as having recently undergone a sudden conversion "from a British Asian who dressed in Western clothes to a religious teenager who wore Islamic garb and only stopped to say salaam to fellow Muslims."

The secret of this story is in that conversion - and so is the crisis in Islam. The people and ideas that brought about that sudden conversion of Hasib Hussain and his pals - if not stopped by other Muslims - will end up converting every Muslim into a suspect and one of the world's great religions into a cult of death.

15 is Crucial

Today's 13th stage is flat, before 3 cruel stages in the Pyrenees. The crucial stage is 15, on Sunday, featuring 4 cat 1 climbs in a row, and then the bloody finish on a HC climb that has been variously described as monstrously tough. This is basically where Lance will have the biggest opportunity to lose the Tour, or consolidate a win.

He has already lost Beltran, his ace on the mountains (who fell and knocked his head), so it will be stage 15 that ultimately tests the mettle of all the champions in this years race, and especially Armstrong and his team. Should be exciting.

44/ Hot Dog

Damn hot today. 30 and humid. Got up at about 4am to watch Le Tour. Vino is a gutsy rider. Will be good to do a decent run and cycle this weekend. Hopefully the weather will play ball. Will swim on Saturday and Sunday as usual. Need to catch up on a lot of reading. Was thinking today, that once the Tour is over, I am going to dedicate my leisure time to more work related stuff. Stuff like writing (continue working on the children's stories I have in development already) and research and developing ideas, especially relating to a business start up. Less entertainment, more work And then also sport.

44/4 Some Things Change, Some Things Don't Change

Too tired to write much. Did not cycle this morning. School - blah - except for noticing that all December's holidays fall on weekends (confirming an early exit strategy) and an interesting conversation with my last student, and then went with Sumin, Sujie and Sey to Outback.

Had a 5 course meal, including yummy grilled mushrooms, a prawn salad, chicken and bacon dish, seafood thing and to top it all a chocolate thunderdome with icecream. Split 3 ways it came to only W17 000. What a feast! If I'm going to weigh in at 81.9kg I might as well own it and enjoy it. Actually, other than the dessert, all the food was pretty healthy. Got some essential veg in.

When I got home I had a message that my father had tried to call me from the banks of the Zamebesi. Sorry I missed that. My order for R1000 worth of biltong has gone through. Mouth is already watering. Wasn't I a vegetarian once?

Need a good sleep tonight, tonight...la la la la la la tonight.

Red Cross

Interesting that there were 4 bombers, all four apparently met and disseminated from King's Cross, and 3 of the 4 bombs exploded in the East, West and South of London virtually simultaneously. The 4th exploded an hour later on a bus, after the bomber was unable to use the underground, which had been closed.

On CNN today they interviewed a London man, quite old, who was sitting next to the bomber, and got off the bus a few seconds and metres after it got rerouted. He said the man was young, very smartly dressed, and kept fiddling with something in a small backpack.

I guess the bomber was panicking because he'd essentially blown his part of the four point plan. He was struggling to blow himself up, apparently, couldn't catch a train. But after an hour of struggling to detonate himself sufficiently close to others, he got it right.

If you have such a pictorial view of killing, designing it with some creative message in mind, in this case in the shape of a cross, you've got to start wondering why they hate us so much. They've obviously thought about it a great deal. The answer isn't to hate them back, it's to figure out how to live together where everyone benefits. One of the consequences of free market capitalism is unequal distribution of wealth (benefits). It becomes necessary, as responsible economists and citizens, to take care of the poor, including those suffering a poverty of spirit. Society needs to be more of an inclusive one, and less exclusive. It's easy to look at acts of terror as aberrations. In reality, it's part of a circle of reality that we ourselves create.

Even so, whatever their current philosophy, which is a reaction to our contemporary thinking (albeit extreme)it's disturbing in its determination to be destructive. Perhaps it is also sensible not to treat the symptoms (catch terrorists) but to have a look at why and how this religion comes to see Christianity/the West as the enemy and a kind of nemesis. That's an unhealthy situation in our world, and I don't think intolerance (theirs or ours) is a long term solution to dealing with these terror attacks in our time.

More Mode

I was in two minds about swimming today. Have felt...not great today...partly from lack of sleep, partly general fatigue and feel a bit ill. My lower lip is still raw from a bit of ramyeon I slurped up over the weekend. I only used a quarter of the spice in a sachet, and as soon as I sipped it, it just seared my lip. Today is a few days later and it's still sore.

I decided to swim anyway, since I wanted to give Corneli something, and thought some grocery shopping would be good to do aswell. I made a deal with myself to only swim 2km, but to do them hard.

I like the Wednesday routine. Always feel better after the swim, and find the exercise boosts my productivity. Today, for example, after swimming, quickly blitzed through some shopping, and then in a whirlwind, cleaned up the kitchen, through in some washing, hung up 3 days worth of laundry, and swept the floor. Thanks swimming!

The lane was packed, so going hard was out of the question. Even dived in the next lane, but that proved even worse, so went back. After about 500m I managed to get everyone in line, and then it was very enjoyable. I'm feeling fitter and faster, and am doing the 50's regularly in 37 seconds, did the last one in 34 seconds. Almost all of them were about 10 seconds quicker than anyone else. 10 seconds in swimming is quite a long way. It's almost halfway across a 25m pool.

Swim: 2.5km
Time: 50 minutes
Weight: 81.9kg
Best 50m: 34 seconds

As you can imagine, after my 3 hour plus cycle on Tuesday, it's crazy that I'm heavier again. Think I am going to train harder and only eat Burger Kings and chocolates and beer since I'm not losing weight anyway. (Er...just kidding.)

Also found out who was mystery rider with Ee Sung Hee. He was in the pool, and the fastest swimmer. Seems like quite a serious and hardcore triathlete. He said that they eventually turned around and waited for me but I never came up the hill. I guess they just sped up the hill and used their momentum. At the time it felt like they'd suddenly panicked seeing me turn round and were racing away...
Anyway, I'm still glad I had that day on my own to feel my way around and get into shape and back up to speed at my own pace.
They're cycling again tomorrow. Don't feel up to that now, but maybe I'll feel better tomorrow morning.

They keep asking me if I'm doing Cheolwon, and I think it seems really dumb to them that I can say I'm feeling very unfit. The swim, in truth, is the least on a triathlon, and everyone always says you can never win a triathlon in the swim, but you can lose it. Being Nick van der Leek, The King of Exceptions and Chaos Theory, I am proof positive that you can win a triathlon in the swim. I did that last year at Tongyeong, where the swim was a bit on the long side, and gave me a massive cushion over some much better runners than me. I won that race by over a minute, because of a fast swim, very quick transition, decent cycle, even faster transition, and very average, actually slightly bad run.
I'll go with the mantra I used in Sokcho: If you're not sick, go for it.

At school...and I have to say, every time I write about Hagwon Life I feel like it is so trivial, and dumb, it's like talking about what you did in the bathroom, which razor blades you used, and what you decided to do with your toothbrush. Dumb. It's even dumber to get so wrapped up in the trivial that you start to take it too seriously.
Anyway the director made a big decision today. Since the staff room which contains...hmmm...6 teachers in fairly cramped quarters has no aircon, he's decided to move us to his office, which is about twice the size.

I think aircon has zero to with it. He wouldn't really give a shit if their were puddles of water dripping under us. This is his way of keeping a careful eye on us. I caught some reference, in all the blah blah in Korean, about going downstairs to buy bread. That was me. Missed lunch today, so in my 5 minute break I went downstairs and bought two muffin things and later 2 cokes to blast away the sleepy feeling that was hanging over me.

If he thinks being in his office is going to prevent me from eating when I'm hungry he's going to have to catch a wake up. I hope he enjoys an office full of hungry teachers, sometimes eating water melon that parents bring, and messing the crumbs of lunch on the run. All the teachers are grumbling because none of them want to share space with Mr Wonderful.

Phil Liggett, the Tour De France commentator, has a sore throat, but fortunately has decided not to abandon the Tour.
On the same topic, got an email from a friend of mine, Alex, who said if Lance wins this one, this 7th Tour, then he'll have his respect. I guess being the only guy in history to win 6 (one more than anyone else) is still fairly meiocre eh. I wonder what I have to do/or have done - to earn his friendship/respect?

Have actually asked him and one or two other cycling friends to dedicate themselves, with me, towards pursuing the 2006 Argus together, trying to race it as a team, under 3 hours. As a team, but at the end of the day, still racing each other.
We'll see how that goes.

Also got some other interesting emails.
Now I have to watch how Lance caused so much damage in yesterday's stage 10.

World Health Organization Says Bird Flu Mutating, Poses Greater Threat

July 13, 2005 2:39 a.m. EST
William J Brown - News Room Administrators Staff

Hong Kong, China (AHN) - The World Health Organization is concerned that a deadly strain of bird flu, that has already killed more than 50 people in Asian countries might mutate into a form that can be passed from one person to another and create a global pandemic.

WHO spokesman Peter Cordingley says so far there is no conclusive proof of human-to-human transmission. "We have found a couple of cases that were very suspicious, but we couldn't actually hammer that nail home."
The H5N1 strain of bird flu has jumped from chickens to humans elsewhere in Southeast Asia, killing 36 people in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and four in Cambodia.

Health experts worry that pigs could become infected with both bird flu and its human equivalent could act as a "mixing bowl," resulting in a dangerous, mutant virus that might spread to people more easily - and then from person to person.

2 Indonesians die from suspected bird flu

www.chinaview.cn 2005-07-13 14:26:10

JAKARTA, July 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A father and his little daughter have died at a hospital in the western Java town of Tangerang from suspected avian influenza, local media reports said Wednesday.

Iwan Siswara Rafei, a staff with the Supreme Audit Body (BPK), died at the Siloam Gleneagles Hospital Tuesday afternoon after showing bird flu symptoms, reported the Detikcom online news service.

His daughter Thalita Nurul Azizah died earlier Saturday with similar symptoms, it said. Another daughter Sabrina Nurul Aisyah, who was first detected with the symptoms, is still under intensive treatment at the same hospital, around 20 km south of Jakarta.

She suffers high fever and respiratory problems.

The reports were first released by Metro TV, which reported that the family suffered the disease after their trip to Hong Kong and India.

The Indonesian government has confirmed bird flu outbreak among chickens and only one person, a poultry worker in South Sulawesi province, was tested positive of the disease.

Zzz

Had a terrible sleep last night. Seems like I can only sleep if I am very very tired. Once I've slept one or two hours can't seem to fall asleep again. The rain outside helped. Something must be bothering me...

B.E.A yewtiful!

Tour De France Newsflash: Top 10 Overall

17:41 - The New Top 10 Overall...

Even before Jens Voigt reaches the end of stage 10, we can report that Armstrong is back in the yellow jersey. The new top 10 is:

1. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel - 1,6866.0km in 37h11’04" (44.92km/h)
2. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) Rabobank at 38"
3. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 2’40"
4. Christophe Moreau (France) Credit Agricole at 2’42"
5. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) Illes Balears at 3’16"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner at 3’58"
7. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) Illes Balears at 4’00"
8. Jan Ullrich (Germany) T-Mobile at 4’02"
9. Andreas Kloden (Germany) T-Mobile at 4’16"
10. Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak at 4’16"

17:27 - The Top 10 In Stage 10

The top 10 in the 10th stage of the 2005 Tour de France is:
1. Alejandro Valverde (Spain) IBA
2. Lance Armstrong (USA) DSC - at same time
3. Mickael Rasmussen (Denmark) RAB at 9"
4. Francisco Mancebo (Spain) IBA at 9"
5. Ivan Basso (Italy) CSC at 1�02"
6. Levi Leipheimer (USA) GST at 1�15"
7. Eddy Mazzoleni (Italy) LAM at 2�14"
8. Cadel Evans (Australia) DVL at 2�14"
9. Andreas Kloden (Germany) TMO at 2�14"
10. Andrey Kashechkin (Kazakstahn) C.A at 2�14"
17:23 - Ullrich�s Group Loses 2�12"

Mazzoleni has led a group of riders include Evans, Ullrich and Kloden over the line 2�12" behind Valverde.
17:22 - Leipheimer Sixth

Leipheimer has claimed sixth place 1�15" behind Valverde.
17:22 - Basso Home...

Ivan Basso has claimed fifth place in the 10th stage. He was 1�01" behind Valverde.
17:21 - Valverde Wins The Stage!

Alejandro Valverde has won the 10th stage in a sprint against Lance Armstrong. It�s the Spaniard�s first stage win in the Tour de France.
17:20 - Armstrong Attacks

Armstrongt has attacked and is only matched by Valverde. The stage win is going to go to either one of these two riders....
17:18 - Double Points At The Top

There are 30 points on offer in the climbing classification for the first rider across the line in Courchevel. The four stage leaders appear content to cooperate. They are 1km from the end of the stage and Armstrong, Mancebo, Valverde and Rasmussen have all done their share of work at the front.
17:16 - 2km To Go

Armstrong�s group is less than 2km from the finish. They are all sharing the work in the lead. Valverde is the latest rider to come forward to do a turn.
17:15 - Armstrong Again

Jaksche is now 55" behind Armstrong, Mancebo, Valverde and Rasmussen. Landis is riding with a group of five riders that is 1�35" behind Armstrong. Then comes Ullrich and Kloden at 1�45".
17:14 - Rasmussen Not Taking A Turn

The only rider who hasn�t done a turn in the lead group is Rasmussen. The leading quartet are 3km from the finish of the stage.
Rasmussen has just come forward for the first time but it was just a brief turn of pace.
17:13 - Mancebo Takes Control

Mancebo has now come to the front. His contorted frame is setting the pace of the lead group with a lead of 1�34" over Ullrich and Kloden.
17:12 - Armstrong Setting The Pace

Armstrong is now in charge of the lead group. He is setting a furious pace in the final 4km but cannot get ride of Rasmussen, Valverde and Mancebo.
17:11 - Ivan Basso - 17" Behind

Basso is now 17" behind Armstrong�s group. With 4km to go Armstrong has come to the front of the lead group again.
17:10 - 5km To Go

We don�t have a time check for Basso but can report that Mancebo, Valverde, Rasmussen and Armmstrong are less than 5km from the finish. They lead Ullrich and Kloden by 1�13".
17:08 - 6km To Go

Armstrong has just gone to the back of the lead group. He is letting Mancebo set the pace. This quarter has 6km to go in the stage.
17:07 - Valverde Takes Control

The lead group is now being led by Valverde. Armstrong could match the pace and the American has just come forward. Behind him is Rasmussen and Mancebo.
These guys are 1�13" ahead of Ullrich.
17:06 - 1�10" Deficit For Ullrich And Kloden

Armstrong�s group is now 1�10" ahead of Ullrich who has joined forces with Kloden with 7km to go in the stage.
17:05 - 7km To Go

The four leaders are now just 7km from the end of the stage. The yellow jersey is 11 minutes behind Armstrong�s quartet.
The pace up front is being set by Armstrong.
They are 15" ahead of Basso and 50" ahead of Evans...
17:03 - Basso Dropped

Basso has been dropped by Armstrong�s group. There are now just four riders in the lead of the stage: Armstrong, Valverde, Mancebo and Rasmussen.
17:02 - Some Time Checks...

The leading five riders are Armstrong, Mancebo, Valverde, Rasmussen and Basso are 10" ahead of Evans; 25" ahead of Kloden; 40" ahead of Landis and Mazzolini and Piepoli; 50" ahead of Ullrich and Kacheschkin.
17:00 - Ullrich With Kachesckin

Armstrong is taking inspiration from the fact that Ullrich has been dropped. The American is now leading the front group which now includes: Armstrong, Rasmussen, Basso, Mancebo and Valverde.
16:59 - Ullrich 32" Behind Lead Group

Jan Ullrich is 32" behind the leading group of eight riders. There are 9.5km to go in the stage and Armstrong is now setting the pace.
16:59 - Leipheimer Also In Lead Group

Leipheimer has joined the lead group which has just dropped Evans.
16:58 - Jaksche Caught By Armstrong�s Group

There are now seven riders in the lead of the stage. The lead group consists of Armstrong, Basso, Rasmussen, Mancebo, Valverde, Evans and Jaksche. They are 10km from the finish of the stage.
16:56 - Mancebo Driving The Pace Now

Mancebo is setting the pace of the Armstrong group. The riders in this group are:
Mancebo and Valverde (IBA), Armstrong (DSC), Rasmusssen (RAB), Evans (DVL) and Basso (CSC).
16:54 - It�s Time To Surge...

Popovych has just buried himself in an attempt to get ride of all the riders in Armstrong�s group. The American is now setting the pace of the chase group. The only riders who have been able to match the effort of Armstrong are Valverde, Basso, Evans, Rasmussen and Mancebo.
Ullrich has been dropped.
16:53 - 14 Riders In Armstrong�s Group

There are 14 riders in Armstrong group:
Armstrong, Popovych, Ullrich, Kloden, Basso, Mancebo, Evans, Rasmussen, Landis, Piepoli, Kashechkin, Mazzoleni, Leipheimer and Valverde.
They are 45" behind Jaksche.
16:52 - Vinokourov Dropped

Vinokourov has been dropped by the Armstrong group.

"Dear John"

I recently sent my girlfriend Fransa a "Dear John" letter. It went like this:

Dear Fransa,
I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is just too great. I must admit that I have cheated on you twice, since you've been gone, and it's not fair to either of us. I'm sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent to you.
Love, Nick

Fransa's best friend, Bennette, told me she was very hurt, and so asked her colleagues for any snapshots they
could spare of their boyfriends, brothers, ex-boyfriends, uncles,
cousins etc. In addition to the picture of me, Fransa included all the
other pictures of the pretty lads she had collected from her buddies.
There were 57 photos in that envelope along with this note:

Dear Nick,
I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who the f*** you are. Please take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.
Take Care, Fransa

44/2 Hardline

It was always going to be a hard day with 3-4 hours sleep and a big opener like a 80km cycle.

I had a few girls...let's see, 2 sets of 2, and then another girl in a third class who just gave me a hard time. Not sure if it is teenage woe or just being difficult, or trying to take chances. Maybe I'm too easy on 'em too often. Basically whatever I say I'm wasting my breath. Maybe I wouldn't have cared on any other day. But the odds are, an attitude like that is eventually going to rifle your feathers. I mean, where they say "shiro" or "pabo" under their breath, just as you turn your back or walk past. After the 111th time it's annoying. Shiro means "I don't like that" and pabo means "dumb".

On any other day, but today I wasn't lus for annoying nonsense.
The two girls I so kindly chaueffered in a taxi and paid for their hour at an internet room, they were the first. Scribbling in their books and basically using the entire duration of the class to go "ach...shiro...sekiro...". As luck would have it, just as the class ended they scrunched up their empty worksheets, and the director walked past. I quickly showed him the mess they'd made, and then opened one of their books to reveal a forest of squiggles. That was my part done. I left her as her whiny excuses and balling took over. No doubt she explained what an awful teacher I am for asking her to answer a question in English, in an English class.

Next class the artist (who still hasn't clicked that it's not an art class - the second I walk into the door, out come the colored pencils) and her compadre just drew pictures through the first half of the class, while not interrupting their conversation to acknowledge an eventual "SHUTUP!" from me. Maybe they thought I was joking when I said they couldn't leave the class until they had actually finished what all the other students had done. 5 minutes later they still hadn't started, and a few 'shiros' bheind my back and I brought them to the front of the class for some reach-for-the-sky. I kept them for 5 minutes after class where they scribbled 3 answers untidily over the page. Don't really understand how they can't see that their obstinacy just makes the whole process worse for themselves.

In the 6pm class Merry did the same thing, and when I confronted her, she packed away her stuff and stomped out of the class, slamming the door behind her.

Wasn't all bad. Don't get the wrong idea. Just trying to figure out what is wrong with a few of the young girls today. Did they all become young women on the same day? But it's this stuff that I'm basically at my limit at. Not going to waste my brain and energy dealing with this silly behaviour much longer. Specifically, this lark of teaching English at this level of pathetic is going to end, for good I think, in just a few months. Can't do this for much longer. It's just dull and dumb, and makes the mind numb. And you know, it's not like I don't like teaching. I just think I need more maturity from my students, and I'd much rather be teaching a much higher level, literature or philosophy or essay writing than getting them to see that an answer with the word 'cookie' belongs under the picture of a cookie. Talk about dumbing down the teacher! Did I really think, once upon a time, that I could do this till 2008?

Time now to be creative, and choose a good new direction for the near future. I'm the master of my own destiny, so must be careful and fully conscious because it's me who has to live out the decisions that take me into the next chapter after this one is done and gone.

Tour de DMZ

I woke up from a bizarre nightmare featuring three of us silently watching clifftop missile launches, intercontinental ballistic missiles (not the usual staple of my nighttime entertainment)falling back to Earth from space...

Woke up and had some water, and on the way back to bed saw I had an email from my brother. The light of the flatscreen was so bright it hurt, but managed to quickly send an email back. He's housesitting while my father is away on safari. Before heading back to bed I pulled away the blind and saw that the sky was looking bright and clear. The Cannondale beckoned.

By 5:25am I was out the door. Lovely, cool, clear morning. I thought I might even catch Ee Sung Hee at Wal-Mart...couldn't remember if they leave at 5am or 5:30am. I got there at 5:35am.
It was 19 degrees celcius when I left, and it only went up to 26. That's a bargain at this time of the year, even so early in the morning. The air was also thin. Not thick and wet. There were wisps of mist hanging over gorgeous green fields. That's after the hairy first 10-15km you need to do to get out of this satellite city's suburban limits.

I wanted to try to catch Ee Sung Hee or any group that had gathered, just because I wanted some company, and a bit of safety in numbers. It wasn't to be, but it didn't matter, because it was a beautiful day, and it was really interesting being back out on these roads that I last saw in the late autumn of 2004.
I am a very different creature now. Sluggish and slow, but I have to remind myself the machine and the roads are the same, and so am I. I just need to be patient.

I expected a lot more development around Paju, and in fact there is very little that has changed. One or two army camps have shifted locations, some new paving and a new road here and there.
When I headed out I thought I might turn around at about 25km, at the famous T-Junction where a truck driver flung a baseball bat at my face once upon a time. That would have been a 2 hour or so cycle. But it was so calm and peaceful, and I thought I might still run into the other triathletes, so I headed further out to Imjingak. It's a good thing I threw in some extra gu and powergel, because I needed them.

I was really happy to find the roads still very quiet, and the countryside so peaceful this time of the morning. I took a new route to the the Imjingak road this time, and dodged the train barriers as a train approached - hopped over the railway line. After a short climb I was flying towards the 3rd Infiltration Tunnel (where the North Koreans were dynamiting their way into South Korea) and about 8km from the Tunnel I saw two cyclists. Ee Sung Hee tailing some other dude who looked pretty fit. I was 3km from the end of my route, but I pulled around. I had to pick up speed to catch them, and head up a hill, and suddenly the next hour flashed in front of me, and I suddenly changed my mind. I decided to rather spend the morning on my own, so I turnewd around again and headed to the end of the road.

The highway...and it's about 6 lanes wide...doesn't just run into gravel when it hits the very heavily fortified military checkpoint (think huge concrete barriers, and metal spikes, and strange shapes that remind you of shorebreaks close to harbors). The highway crosses the DMZ into North Korea, but I'm not sure if it stays in such pristine shape across the border. This is where I have to turn around. The DMZ (demilitarised zone) is an empty zone about 5km wide separating North and South Korea. It's sparesely populated, and farmers here are paid a little extra to till the soil here. It's also great for cyclists because there's a lot less traffic here.
So I turned around...about 40km from home. I can't say for sure because I left my wheel magnet on my Zipp wheel today.

Legs started filling with lactic acid at 50km. Remember this is only my 2nd cycle since being back in Korea. I saw a sign right after I turned around at the Checkpoint saying LG/Philipps LCD 14.5km. Now why on earth would they build a big factory so close to North Korea? Doesn't seem very sensible to me. Unless they are trying to make a deal to ship stuff through North Korea to China, or employ North Koreans as cheap labor? Or they just seized on the cheapest land they could find.

Now I said earlier that there weren't any new roadside developments. Well, this was the exception. I took the longer route round, back to T-Junction and went via what is a GARGANTUAN industrial complex. Earlier in this blog I may have mentioned a construction effort which basically obliterated a hillside. Well this is it. I noticed a brand spanking new cemetry on the opposite side of the road, with a quaint entrance gate and paved road. This is where I guess they transplanted graves from what was once a hillside.

In its place... Okay, you know the appearance of lego. It sort of has that shiny plasticky look. As though there are no joints to the building... Well, the complex rises sheer off the hillside, in this sort of smooth, white, plastic, perfectly square sort of style. There are about 12 balconies with garage door type windows which I assume will be fitted with conveyor belts to various trucks or trains below. It seems like the distribution outlet.
There are two giant white structures I suppose for assembly. Far in the distance, were a few snow white apartment blocks, I guess to house the laborers. They shot up out of nowhere, very quickly. Then there are huge steel bridges connecting skeletal structures still under construction, and then, as I came over the rise, there was this endless thing that looked like a bridge, and under it were stacks of trucks...seemed like they were in a traffic jam except they were just parked there. Maybe fifty or more, all fully loaded with what looked like glass in the back, covered in sheets. Just the landscaping above the canal was about 2-3 storeys high, and a massive project.

The whole thing apears to be 2-3 kilometres long, and I couldn't really see over the massive structures, I saw some huge white smoke stacks, and apartments. Could be 2-3 kilometres square. I guess they are planning to supply the world with flatscreens. I've love to see this place a month after Oil hits $70.
If it does well, they'll probably build schools around here and possibly employ people to teach english to the staff. It could be quite interesting. Seems very high tech, and mind bogglingly massive.

I'm glad I've seen it because I'm not going to risk life and limb cycling through all the trucks and half destroyed roads again. That route was just to put an extra 5km or so in the bank, and to avoid a short, steep climb.

From there I felt pretty tired. Had some gu and then took it easy back.

Made the mistake of turning off towards Kintex at Walmart. I thought it would be quicker, but the inner lane had just been tarred, and very unevenly. I made the best of it, and cycled the last few km's through Lake Park. Cycled right through a movie set, despite them waving me away. To be honest, I was going a bit too fast to go anywhere else, and I thought the guy who was motioning for me onto the pedestrian path was nuts.
When I turned off the road into Lake Park, I went through a puddle of water from yesterday's rain, and it must have been very slick, because my front wheel just freaked out under me. I'm pretty lucky with stuff like that. Seem to have good reflexes. Not sure how, but got out of that one without falling.

Watching the Tour de France has been really motivating and inspiring.
Just watched a guy in utter agony who fell off his bike and broke his color bone. Looks like he is crying. Ow.

I got back today at 08:45am, so that's a good 3:20 minutes on the bike.
Distance: 80km
3300 calories burned before I've even had breakfast.

Am really sleepy now. After Annie calls, must try to get 2 hours sleep.
Would like to do this again soon. The Tour de DMZzzzzzz...

The Ford Mercury Mariner. The latest in hybrid technology. They can only be ordered online, at http://www.mercuryvehicles.com/

The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose. - J. Martin Kohe

Your Attitude is What You Say When You Talk to Yourself

Take A Chance On Me (Baby Set Me Free)

No, I'm not talking about my girlfriend. My director called me into his office during my last class and decided it was a good time to respond to a letter I wrote 2 weeks ago. I didn't know whether he'd paid my salary, but I'd guessed no, and I also guessed he wanted me to come whimpering and quivering into his office today. Like I said, I didn't really know whether he'd paid it, I hadn't checked, but I had an inkling this morning when he stepped into his domain (which it has to be said is quite scruffy and dirty) triumphant, and he said hello to the secretary and ignored...I just had an idea that some strategy was behind that. Maybe baby.

So in his office he scribbled on a tiny piece of paste-it yellow message paper my salary, and under that, minus W100 000. Before we got to that he mentioned that some students have quit the school, and I guess this was my fault.
I don't know. I mean, in my experience, a lot of directors, before they get to the point, they either criticise you or praise you with something besides the point, and then real point, is never made, or emerges very much in a sort of by-the-way way.

I managed to make a couple of points, and watched him grind his hand hard against his forehead as I spoke, much as Tom Cruise does in Jerry Maguire when the stress gets to him.
I suggested we make a few rules at the school.
Maybe:
1) Come to class on time
2) Don't eat in class
3) Listen to the teacher

I know. All three are kind've implicit, but not at this school. I'm not sure what the philosophy is here, but I think it boils down to this:

Kids need to come here and occupy and enjoy themselves while their parents are at work. That's the most important. We'll teach some math and English, but if they don't learn anything that doesn't matter. What's important is that they are here in a safe environment where they can study and learn if they feel like it.

Do you think I'm joking?

This makes an almost sick contrast to CDI which basically robotcontrolled every utterance you said, timed to the minute. And each class was around 3 hours.

These suggestions to the director were in part because he wanted me to spare the rod with the students.
In my 3 years at Kangs I never once used capital punishment. This is in part because of the system, and also because there is often another teacher present. But that school, as mediocre as it was, had a few rules posted on the walls.

It's a challenge to get discipline out of students when many of them come in 15 minutes late into a 30 minute class, and half the time they are stuffing their faces with food. The implication of eating in class means they need to leave the class to throw away plastic wrappers, or clean their faces, or clean the mess they've made. At least one student turned her book into what looks like a palm tree after she spilled a water bottle over it. All the apges have curled back. It looks great, but try writing on that.
Just these 2 things create an environment of chaos and a sort of erratic teaching pattern which incentivises bad behaviour. I've used stickers as a great way to reward good behaviour. It's provided the means for much better behaviour across the board. But there are still one or two devils in every class who simply aren't interested.

It's possible to get the momentum of the class going without getting them in line, and I usually do this. But there are times when discipline is absolutely necessary. It's a shock when you find yourself saying loudly, 5 or 6 times, "Be quiet, be quiet..." and you realise no one can actually hear you over the noise and mayhem. If you think that's OK, try repeating that in 10 classes. You'll be horase before you get halfway, and it's not teaching. It's then that you raise your voice to a take-no-nonsense shout and suddenly everyone snaps to attention. That's discipline. It's when you raise your voice like that and a student ignores you that you have to consider weaponising a piece of chalk.

I've got a great class where the ability to speak English is almost subzero, except for one little girl who continues to be astonishingly brilliant. Cindy - what would I do without you?
But the others are a lot of fun, and Frank isn't far behind Cindy.
There was a lot of upset in the beginning, as they gave up on me (all they got from me was blah blah be quiet blah) and I gave up on them. But they're still young enough to be happy and positive towards someone they don't understand even a little, even if he is giving them a lot of grief.
I tried reasoning.
I tried handsup.
I tried pushups.
I tried and tried and tried.
When I did role call and I got to Lily, I'd sing a little melody with it: "The Lilee of the Valleeee..." and they'd all chime in the next time when we got to her name.
And then they picked up on another little songpiece I used, to indicate we're going to refer to the audio CD for role plays.
Point to the radio.
Sing: All we need is...radio goo goo, radio gaa gaa.

Now whenever I take out the CD, the song erupts, and it's also useful to sing words to hear and feel how they sound. Today we did an easy one: "All we need is, radio (pointing to it) coffee..." But today, also, no one could say, "July 11th, Monday, Rainy."
So we all sang, "All we need is, Radio-July-11th-Monday-Rainy." It must be sung with that catchy Queen melody. And shah, before you knew it quite a few had it.

Another funny thing happened in this class with a kid called Harry. Today I had about W7000-W8000 in W1000 notes. And I'd just dropped two W1000 in a previous class - the kids were very quick to point me to the first and second errant notes. They're very honest in that way. So in the very next class, in the middle of trying to extricate an answer to "How was your weekend?" from Harry Potter, I saw another W1000 under Cindy's desk, and irritably dug it back into my pocket. Not long after that, Harry was in tears. In my wehgohgin ignorance I thought that the hard high 5 I gave him had hurt him, but it turns out I'd taken his money. He'd happened to drop his W1000 on the floor. It took me a few minutes to figure it out, and once I did, I handed the money back to him, and then explained, "Hey teacher, that's my money. My money teacher.?

Anyway, back to my wonderful boss. So a few students have quit, and in fairness to him, I think he was trying to say it's our common cause to prevent that from getting worse, as a school. And what I can do is that I mustn't give 'be-kwaai-it' hand smacks, and he's deducting W100 000 from my pay for the air ticket blah blah. That's how I understood it all. Okay the W100 000...I still don't know what it was for. A fee for changing the ticket? I don't know. The air ticket went up and by that amount from the amount he first paid? Or because I missed a day of school? I don't know. I drew a line through it, and put W50 000 instead in pen, and then said, "Remember, last week, you said W50 000."
Which he did.
And so that was the deal.
But the point is, it was also a negotiation. Korean style.

Before I left, and I think this was kind've cheeky, but we are about the same age, and I mean, it's reality, but I basically said to the guy, "Some students have quit. Maybe you think it's me? But while I'm here your secretary has quit, and two or three other teachers. The students are behaving very badly. Maybe we can have just one or two simple rules. We need to get everyone organised." I pointed out quickly that when he was in the army, they'd had rules. Any business needs some rules. I know. An employee shouldn't educate his or her boss. By way of example I said, "Especially time. If a student is late, and there's no rule, what can you do? Sometimes they are 15 minutes late. What happens if I am late for class, or late to come to school? There must be rules for the students too."
Right then he glanced at his watch. "Oh...oh...you are late for class. You must go now."
Exactly.

I hope, soon, I'll be the boss. This employee business is for losers who can't kickstart their own lives.

I've changed my mind regarding the computer. I've installed new software which has optimised the whole system. I don't want to lose my computer while the Tour de France is showing, and my current philosophy in terms of money is: First Earn, Then Burn. Not going to buy a hard drive now when I am still trying to get back into a pattern of saving. Will use my pocketmoney from Annie to pay for that at the end of the month. That reminds me, she's going to call me tomorrow at 10am.

Shrimp stir fry...although to be accurate it is softened to a large degree by steaming, and there is a small amount of frying. Most important ingredient is lemons, and important, don't overcook.

Had this last week. Spaghetti with plenty of vegetables. Most important ingredient here is Mrs Ball's chutney.

Perfect and delicious avocados for dinner tonight (on toast). Not these though, took this photo about this time last week. Last night I ate some Ramyeon noodles, and the spicy sauce instantly seared my lower lip. felt like I had just sandpapered my lip! I don't remember my mouth being this sensitive to spicy food last year. My lower lip was slightly sensitive all of today, so I am banning Korean food for at least the next week, and basically going to avoid it for a while. The week before this one was very ouch from sores developed over the triathlon, where I ate only Korean food and just burned away the membranes of my mouth. No wonder the stomach cancer here is highest in the world. Imagine what it does it to the walls of your stomach, sitting there stewing for hour after hour after hour. Avo does the job. Cool, smooth, and natural.

I Told You So (So Many Times) /Kunstler Part 111

July 11, 2005
The glamorous Maria Bartiromo was just on CNBC talking globalism (and China in particular) with two Wall Street cretins. China is a great play said Cretin No. 1 because they have 300 million potential middle class customers for America's manufacturers. Excuse me, what do we still make that the Chinese either can't make themselves or can't copy five minutes from now?

As Cretin No. 2 waxed effulgent over China's fabulous prospects for growth, CNBC flashed a bunch of American brand logos across the screen, including Pepsi Cola and Exxon-Mobil. These companies are going to so clean up over there, Cretin No. 1 chimed in, or the shareholders are going to want to know the reason why.
Yeah, soda pop is really hard to make. They'll have to buy it from us. You thought computers were hard? There are four ingredients in soda pop (water, sugar, favoring, coloring ) and you have to get the proportions just right or it don't come out good!

As for Exxon Mobil, they're going to have enough trouble getting oil to their US customers five years from now -- leading us to the central fallacy of all the current cheerleading for the global economy: there isn't enough oil available worldwide to permit the industrialized nations to continue to expand. In fact, the industrial nations of the world will soon be competing desperately, perhaps even fighting over, the world's remaining oil, while all our economies contract remorselessly.

The public discussion over the global economy is symptomatic of America's new pandemic of brainlessness, the mainstream media especially. The head cheerleader, of course, has been Tom Friedman of the New York Times, author of The World Is Flat. Friedman and the rest of the cheerleading squad believe that that the global economy is a permanent institution. Now that it is established, we can only expect more of it. More and better. Forever.

What all these cretins seem to miss is the cold hard fact that today's transient global economic relations are a product of very special transient circumstances, namely, relative world peace and absolutely reliable supplies of cheap energy. Subtract either of these elements from the equation and you will see globalism evaporate so quickly it will suck the air out of your lungs.
Also, it must be obvious that relative world peace depends on equitable distribution of cheap energy. If the industrial nations don't get the oil and gas they need at a tolerable price, they are going to get very cranky, and when nations get cranky, peace itself is in short supply..
Three quarters of the world's oil is in the eastern hemisphere -- two-thirds of the total is in the Middle east alone. Guess what? All of it is a lot closer to China than it is to us. Some of it they can walk to. Do you have any idea how desperate for oil both China and America are going to be in five years? Do you have a clue how tapped out America's WalMart shoppers are going to be as jobs vanish and the value of a dollar craters in the face of runaway energy prices?
Globalism is yesterday's tomorrow. The future is about living locally on a much smaller scale. Pepsi Cola and Exxon-Mobil are exactly the kind of gigantic enterprises that are going to wither and die over the next decade. China is not tomorrow's geopolitical colossus, it's a geopolitical super train wreck waiting to collide with the reality of its environmental devastation, population overshoot, and energy starvation. Americans will be lucky if they can do each other's laundry ten years from now, let alone sell massive amounts of soda pop to people twelve thousand miles away.
Is it an accident that there is so much Realty TV in America when, in fact, there is so little reality?

Didn't You Know # 2

Killer bird flu virus erupts again in Thailand

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The deadly bird flu virus which has killed 55 Asians has erupted again in Thailand despite a major campaign to eradicate it, the government said on Monday.

Infected fowl were found this month in five places of three districts in Suphanburi province, 100 km (60 miles) north of Bangkok, during follow-up inspections of previously affected areas, a senior Agriculture Ministry official said.

The discoveries reinforced warnings by international health bodies about how difficult it will be to eliminate the H5N1 virus now it has become endemic in parts of Asia.

"Infected fowl are living longer due to increasing immunity," Yukol Limlaemthong, head of the ministry's livestock department told Reuters, meaning it was less likely that unusual deaths would alert farmers to the possibility of infection.

"We have to make examinations all the time in a bid to stop fresh outbreaks," he added.

Twelve Thais have died after being infected by the virus, but there have been no reports of human infections since October in the country, the world's fourth-biggest chicken exporter before H5N1 struck.

However, 19 people have died in Vietnam since December, when the virus returned, taking the country's toll to 39.

Four Cambodians have also died of the disease which first rolled across much of Asia in late 2003, probably brought by migrating wild fowl.

At first the virus appeared to thrive best in the cooler months around the end of the year but the recent outbreaks in Vietnam and Thailand during the hot season back up expert fears of its adaptability.

The World Health Organization says that what it fears most is that the H5N1 virus, which does not move easily between people, could develop the ability through mutation to sweep through human populations.

The world would then face a pandemic without immunity to the strain and millions of people could die.

Currency Good for SA Expats In Korea

1.00 ZAR = 152.601 KRW
1.00 USD = 6.81882 ZAR

Didn't You Know #1

World running low on oil
Jul 10 2005 07:42:10:827PM

Kuwait City - Scarce spare output capacity and a lack of investment in refining coupled with unprecedented growth in global demand will combine to keep oil prices highly volatile for years to come, analysts said on Saturday.
"Volatility in the oil market is not the result of terror attacks, climatic conditions and security uncertainty only. It is more because of low spare capacity that has dropped sharply," Gulf oil analyst Hajjaj Bukhdour said.

Before 2004, worldwide spare capacity exceeded six million barrels per day (bpd) or 8% to 10% of global consumption. Currently, it is around 1.5 million bpd or just 2% of daily world demand, he said.

"In the coming years, spare capacity could drop to as low as 600 000 (under 1%) bpd. This is what is keeping the oil price under continuous pressure."

The problem is compounded by the doubts over the Opec cartel's ability to raise its production capacity to meet the growth in global demand. The International Energy Agency projects worldwide demand of 84.3 million barrels per day this year, an increase of 2.2% on 2004.

The agency stuck by that projection last month and called on Opec to increase its production capacity from the current 30 million bpd to 50 million bpd by 2020 to meet world demand.

But the Financial Times reported on Wednesday that senior Saudi energy officials had privately warned US and European counterparts that the cartel would have an "extremely difficult time" meeting that demand.

Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia calculates there is a 4.5 million bpd gap between what the world needs and what the kingdom can provide as it can boost its output to a maximum of 15 million bpd by 2020, the Financial Times said.

Opec's acting secretary general Adnan Shihab-Eldin said Opec expects that global oil demand will rise to around 111 million bpd by 2025 at an annual average growth rate of 1.5 million bpd. By then, Opec will meet 49% of world demand at 55 million bpd.

To raise output capacity and clear bottlenecks in the refining sector, oil-producing nations need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next two decades.

According to an IEA estimate, $16 trillion in investment will be needed in the energy sector by 2030.

There had been hardly any investment in refineries in the past 25 years and in the Gulf Arab states, which produce 17 million bpd, not a single new refinery had been built since 1980.

Gulf Arab oil producers are expected to invest some $500bn in the oil industry over the next 15 years, some of it in the refining sector.

But former Kuwaiti oil executive Kamel al-Harami warned: "The market will continue to be highly volatile for many years to come unless huge investments are pumped into the industry, especially in raising output and refining capability."

Week 44/1

Still raining. Was nice to sleep late this morning...although I only went to sleep at 6am. Was watching Tour de France and House of Wax. Nice cozy atmosphere for watching movies.

Fransa gave me a call from South Africa. She had a birthday party over the weekend.
Sounds like it was fun...the bits she can remember anyway. She said something about photos...Think she is sending some through the mail.

Going to play the Pilates video tonight and find some exercises to do using google. I remember half a dozen from what Petru taught me. It's quite fun having this big plastic ball in my apartment to do exercises and play with.

In 2 and a half weeks we have a week's holiday, and then two weeks later again. The next two months are going to fly. I wonder if I am? And where?

This week I need to improve swimming even more and catch a clear sunny day for a cycle. I feel like I am losing weight, even if the evidence so far is purely circumstantial.

I wonder how Allan's gig went in Bloemfontein?

Armstrong gives up overall lead in Tour de France

By JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer
July 10, 2005

MULHOUSE, France (AP) -- Lance Armstrong gave up the overall lead in the Tour de France on Sunday, allowing Germany's Jens Voigt to wear the yellow jersey while the six-time champion prepares to scale the mighty Alps.

Armstrong finished 28th in the ninth stage and dropped to third overall, 2 minutes, 18 seconds behind Voigt. The Texan, seeking a seventh straight Tour victory before he retires, had been in front for five days.

Armstrong does not regard Voigt as a main contender. With the German wearing the yellow jersey entering Tuesday's start in the Alps, Armstrong will be freed of the worry of having to defend the lead.

``Voigt is not their guy for the high mountains,'' Armstrong said of the German's Team CSC.

Danish racer Mickael Rasmussen took his first career Tour stage victory with a gutsy solo ride. Sunday's 106.3-mile route from Gerardmer and Mulhouse in eastern France took the riders over six climbs, and Rasmussen was first over them all.

Voigt crossed the line 3:04 seconds behind Rasmussen with French rider Christophe Moreau -- good enough to take the overall race lead from Armstrong.

Armstrong finished in a pack with his main rivals several minutes behind Voigt and Moreau, now 1:50 behind in second.

Because they finished together in a group, the time differences between Armstrong and his main rivals -- Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Alexandre Vinokourov, remained unchanged. Their competition is expected to begin in earnest in the Alps. Ullrich finished 29th on Sunday, Vinokourov 35th and Basso 39th.

``We don't need the yellow jersey,'' Armstrong said at the start of the stage. ``We don't need to keep it in the Alps. We need to have it at the end.''

After the race, he added: ``I felt like today might be the day when the jersey would be given away and it turned out it was.''

The good news for Armstrong was that his Discovery Channel teammates rode strongly -- recovering from a disappointing ride Saturday when all eight of them abandoned him in the final climb, unable to keep up with the quick uphill pace. That left Armstrong alone to fend off his rivals' challenges.

``We were better,'' Armstrong said. ``That's good going into the rest day: regroup and get ready for the big climbs.''

Armstrong's team did not give chase when Rasmussen sprinted off on the day's first climb, building up a lead that he never gave up. Nor did Armstrong's teammates seek to prevent Voigt from taking the overall lead, although they still pedaled robustly to make sure that he did not get too far ahead.

Armstrong's pack ``weren't riding that much behind, so it happily worked for me,'' Voigt said.

He said he did not expect to keep the lead later in the high mountains.

``Today was my very last chance to take the jersey,'' he said.

Armstrong will have plenty of opportunities to gain time on the punishing Alpine climbs, or later in the Pyrenees and in a final time trial race against the clock on the Tour's next-to-last day, before the finish in Paris on July 24.

Rasmussen, who finished 14th overall in last year's Tour, had scouted out Sunday's route earlier in the year, thinking it might be possible for him to win.

``I knew what was coming and that was definitely an advantage,'' he said. ``Ever since I started (cycling) I was dreaming about winning a stage like today. I'm very content.''

By being first over the day's six ascents, Rasmussen racked up points in the Tour's mountain-climbing competition. That contest confers a distinctive polka dot jersey on the rider with the most points, currently Rasmussen.

``It's the only thing I'm good at, climbing mountains,'' he said.

Among the ascents on Sunday -- the hardest of the race so far -- was the famed Ballon d'Alsace, first climbed on the Tour 100 years ago. Rene Pottier ascended first that day in 1905, but later dropped out of the race with tendinitis. The Frenchman won the Tour the next year.

Five riders dropped out of the race Sunday, including American David Zabriskie of Team CSC. Zabriskie won the yellow jersey on the Tour's first day but lost it to Armstrong three days later when he fell in a team time trial. Zabriskie struggled with injuries picked up in the crash.

``It's been a real rollercoaster for me,'' he said.

Life is Hard...and not always fair

We're taught to treat others as we want to be treated. We have rules that govern society, roles that keep us in our places. But these are hardly natural. It's our own system, and most of us recognise fairness as a value worth maintaining.
Look at economics. We work hard to earn a living (yes, that's what we call our lives...earning a living!)so that we can pay money to get something we want. Is it fair? Sometimes we think it is. Sometimes when we think it isn't we say we've been 'ripped-off'.

Economics is another system which has fairness as a kind've premise. We think it's fair, but just because we all participate in it doesn't make it so. We think it's fair, but when our credit card debt (based on the idea of interest...which is not essential to economics, the amount of it fairly arbitrary in the beginning)or home require a slavish existence to pay it off...well, it may not seem fair. What about insurance. We pay the insurance company, and once we make our claims, they find ways to not pay us back. If they are good at not paying claims, in other words, if they are able to 'legally' worm themselves out of possible obligations, they become more profitable.

You've been paying insurance on your car for 4 years, but you missed the last payment. You've just backed up into another car and you hear that sickening crunch, and tinkle of broken glass on the tar. This is going to come out of your pocket.
The rich get richer and poor get poorer. Is that fair?

Is it fair when any creature dies young, when children die before their parents, or people die in apparently random fashion, in tidal waves, car accidents or lightning storms? Is that fair?

At school we get rewarded for good work with stickers or praise or high marks. In sport we get medals, our performance is timed and watched. At home our parents reward good behaviour with icecreams or extra TV Time or promises of certain toys for birthdays or Christmas. If you do this, that will happen. If we're Chritians or Muslim the idea that Life Is Fair is perpetuated in the idea that there is Justice. The good go to heaven, the bad go to hell and are punished.

This framework may make a lot of sense, except real life is not fair, hard work is not always rewarded, and the best man does not always win, or win fair lady. Not Fair is everywhere. One person is faithful but the other isn't. People get divorced because life isn't fair. People quit their jobs because life isn't fair. People get a good education but can't find work. I didn't get paid today, despite working the requisite hours. It doesn't seem fair. Maybe I am a good person, maybe I'm not. The world will judge you and I based on how we look, our status compared to them (and status is a measure of our wealth, our job, our race, age, sex and son on). Is this fair?

It's good to remind ourselves that life is a series of problems, and life is difficult. It's a great truth because once we accept it, we can moanh about them or solve them. It's the sign of Higher Consciuousness, of a Stronger and More Successful Person who doesn't wonder why things happen. They wonder how to make the most of them.

So the first thing to remember is life is hard. That means it's not easy. If it is, watch out because it probably means you're in the easy chair and not seeing what's coming.
I recently read about the ill effects of work on Americans health. Most Americans are overworked, feeling they don't have time to find solutions, and aren't able to solve all their problems because they are interrupted with new ones. Consequently some even pass up their vacations, so they can catch up with their workloads.
In a world governed by appearances, and consumption (aka working to buy things as a way of life), there's not enough time (for many of us) for fun.

And life is not only hard. It's not fair. After all, even if we manage to survive all the stuff that goes on, we die anyway. Our reward for surviving the dangers of life? Our bodies give out anyway, and perhaps our minds even before that.

Today I watched Stage 6 of the Tour De France. I saw a frenchman break away on a long stage, around 200km, at 23km. 5 riders joined him, and this small group worked together for about 150km, until all of them fell away on the long climb just outside Nancy. Because Christophe Mengin's home is about 20km from the finish line, this is where he will have ddone a lot of training. Since the Tour was coming through here, and he knew the area so well, and he was moving through local support and hometown fans, his desire to win was riding high. He knew exactly what he was doing, knew where the downhills were, and the sharp bends. The roads were wet and slick, which made it harder for the chasing pack to catch him.
He held off the peloton all the way to the finishing straight and then crashed on the final sharp right hand turn of the stage )with just 700m remaining. He was in a winning position but the wet road caused him to crash. How is that for unfair? Racing beautifully off the front of the peloton, holding them off for about 180km, only to fall in the last less than 1 km.

This stuff happens.

What about two riders (see the picture above) who basically touch the finish line at exactly the same time. One is made the winner. I'm sure that seems fgair to him, but what about the other guy.

The answer is not to dwell on whether it is fair or not. It's to realise that life is hard and not fair. Once that's internalised, you begin with the work and preparation to absorb all the knocks and disappointments that will visit us on Life's Road. The harder we work, and the more disciplined we are, and the better our sense of humor and sense of the world, the better that road will be.

Best Performance?

Laugh and be well - Matthew Green

Spent a lot of time today trying to get the audio of my Tour De France downloads to work. A guy who left a the download link emailed me some Xvid codecs to make it possible to get the audio, but none of them worked. Rendered files, more time wasted. In the end I managed to download a completely new player (called VLC) which I had all along but hadn't noticed a dialog box where you have to click that you want the player (usually it installs automatically). Not long after that I happened across Stage 8 of Le Tour on AFN (at about 3am).

Lance was saying he didn't have a great day, didn't feel so good and his team let him down.

I've also been optimising my computer. And while I've waited for memory and connections to be checked and optimised, I've been optimising myself. Have used my Pilates ball, and started shaving my noggin. Didn't stop there, then started shaving my legs. Then saw in the mirror I'd missed a few spots, then really let rip and started shaving my chest. What's next? Eyebrows?
We westerners are really different creatures to the Koreans. In the pool they are as hairless and glossy, with the same sort of puppy fat appearance naked babies have. We must appear like big lumbering gorillas by comparison.

One of the guys I encountered at the pool today (who'd been drinking, caught the whiff of a brewery) introduced himself as Gumpoh. Who? "Name is like Forrest Gumpoh. Gumpoh."

Some things that catch your eye (or ear), should make you smile.

Rain Rain

It's rained most of the day and last night, so haven't done that much.

Pete called me at 5pm as I was half starting to watch Rocky 2. Glad he did because it got me organised for a swim. Ee Sung Hee came later, wearing flippers this time, probably so she could keep up. Had a good session today in the pool.

Swim: 3km
Time: 1:00:30 (Best time by 1:30)
Did 2 x 250m
First one was a flop. Goggles filled with water, so was swimming blind and not holding form. Tried again. Second one in 3:27 (3 seconds better than last attempt)
Also did a 100m in 1:18.

Pete's the 2nd or 3rd Korean who said he thought War of the Worlds was crap. He said he read the book, so maybe by comparison it's bad. You can't beat the imagination.
I'm still surprised that anyone can find this movie disappointing.

Weight: 80.95kg (After two weeks, officially I've put on 0.45kg!)

Went to Carrefour after swimming. Managed to find the Pilates Ball. W35 000. Going to use it to stretch and do some core muscles. Also got some avocados and iced coffee plus the plastic container. I'm spending W2000 a day on coffee, which has to end (the spending and the coffee).
In the meantime, going to consume homemade fraps, and try to move from coffee to fruit. Maybe I can buy a blender and make smoothies. Water would be best, but not sure if I can stay awake! Will have to attempt at least one day without coffee. To think I used to hate coffee! Actually I still do, but fraps definitely do it for me.

Walking home I played some soccer with a few little kids. Some girls came up to me and asked me if I had a girlfriend. Funny country.

Had some trouble watching a few of the stages. Also downloaded and watched the movie Patch Adams. Seemed cheezy at first, but I think it's quite a wise flick.

Arthur Mendelson: How many fingers do you see?
Hunter Patch Adams: Four.
Arthur Mendelson: No no! Look beyond the fingers! Now tell me how many you see.
Arthur Mendelson: You're focusing on the problem. If you focus on