0293 HKSAR Name of the Day

Weber Lo Wai-pak, director of retail banking and country marketing director with the Citibank Global Consumer Group, Hong Kong

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0292 HKSAR Name of the Day

Jeny Yeung Mei-chun, general manager, marketing and station business, MTRC, Hong Kong

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Name Category: Creation; Deletion; Substitution

0291 HKSAR Name of the Day

Wynnie Chan (Dr), British-trained nutritionist based in Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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What’s The Matter Here?

Why is it that great songs are often about deeply depressing. madly maligned or truly tragic topics? In keeping with the theme of child abuse (from Suzanne Vega’s Luka), here’s a wonderful but disturbing song from the fantastic Natalie Merchant and 10,000 Maniacs: What’s The Matter Here?

Lyrics (partial)

But who gave you the right
To do this to your own flesh and blood?

And instead of love and the feel of warmth
You’ve given him these cuts and sores
That don’t heal with time or with age

Related Posts
Suzanne Vega and Luka Revisited and Redefined
0216 HKSAR Name of the Day
It Don’t Matter If You’re Black or White

0290 HKSAR Name of the Day

Crucindo Hung, chairman, Federation of Motion Film Producers of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

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Born To Run

Humans evolved to be long-distance endurance runners. An interesting New York Times article mentions the ability for humans to run long distances is an evolved trait. Apparently, having good stamina that allowed early human hunters to track their prey for long periods, spanning time and distance, was of great survival advantage.

Tracking prey for long periods over vast distances is necessary to tire out prey animals. This trait can be observed in wolves, animals also known for their ability to track their prey for long periods. Wolves are capable of covering several miles trotting at about a pace of 10 kmph (6.21 mph) and can reach speeds approaching 65 km/h (40.39 mph) during a chase.

Therefore from an evolutionary perspective it makes sense that humans generally are good distance runners. Humans have evolved to run over long distances, with world-class distance runners being at the extreme end of the scale. As mentioned previously, I admire world-class distance runners, who can run on average at sustained speeds* of:
22.82 kmph (14.18 mph) for a distance of 10,000 metres run in 26:17.53 (current record holder is Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia); and
20.42 kmph (12.69 mph) for a marathon (42.195 km) run in 2h03:59 (current record holder is Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia).

However, I don’t especially admire their physique (particularly female marathon runners):

[Paula Radcliffe, New York Marathon November 1, 2009]

In comparison, the world’s fastest man in terms of sprinting short distances is Jamaica’s Usain Bolt who sprints at 37.58 kmph (23.35 mph) over a distance of 100 metres. So a world-class marathon runner is able to run at a little over half of Bolt’s top speed over 100 metres … but can do so 422 times consecutively. This is simply astonishing.

* These times are based on men’s events

Related Blog
“Lightning” Bolt vs Duracell “Battery” Bekele

0289 HKSAR Name of the Day

Oakes Lu, SCMP reporter, Hong Kong

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0288 HKSAR Name of the Day

Kindness Mok (Ms), Senior Business Manager, BEA Weblogic (multi-billion dollar web enabler), Hong Kong

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Name Category: Creation

0287 HKSAR Name of the Day

NiQ Lai, Corporate development director, City Telecom, Hong Kong

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Bus Feet

Are more people putting their feet on bus seats? Here are two recent examples:

What’s interesting is that local Chinese are often (sometimes wrongly) criticized for being inconsiderate; but these two examples perhaps show that some non-Chinese can also be thoughtless, uncouth and selfish. However, I offer no statistics so I may be mistaken.