X multiplied by Y = why

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Many runners enjoy running in groups. Running with company can help in terms of safety, and just extra enjoyment to pass the time.

However, everybody runs at different paces.

I recently experienced a situation where runners set off at different times, running at their own speeds, and hoped to meet up at some point on the same route.

It seemed like the classic high school maths question, “If Train #1 leaves the station travelling at 60km/hr and 30 mins later Train #2 leaves the same station travelling on the same train line at 80km/hr, how long before the trains collide?”.

I’m not good at algebra at the best of times. Let me tell you though, while running I found new levels of hopelessness trying to solve the puzzle of where one runner would catchup to others running at different paces.

Let me document the solution now, for posterity – thanks to http://www.algebra.com/.

The translated problem:

If Runner “Tortoise” leaves at 4:30am travelling at 9km/hr, and Runner “Hare” leaves at 5:00am travelling 12km/hr. At what distance will they meet?

T’s lead = 4.5 kilometres (30 mins @ 9km/hr)

Catching up speed is 3 km/hr (H’s speed 12km/hr – T’s speed 9km/hr)

Solution is to divide the 4.5 kilometre lead, by the speed which H can made up,  3. 

So the answer is…. 1.5 hours.

Let’s test.

The distance which T covers in 1.5 hours is 13.5 kms, then add the 4.5 km head start from beginning 30 mins earlier would mean they would complete 18 kms.

The distance which H covers in 1.5 hours is 18 kms.

The hare after sleeping-in should meet the tortoise after 18kms.

Another great half marathon – tho not a personal best

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Today I ran my third Dubai Creek Striders half marathon. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and wonderful event, even though I didn’t quite achieve my goal of bettering my personal best time from last year.

Early on it seemed it wasn’t going to be my day.

I started out a little behind where I wanted to be, so I sped up which is usually not a good idea. It wasn’t helped by my shoe lace coming undone. I felt like a rookie, even more so when, unforgivably, it came undone again at the 13km mark.

After the first glitch I did find a bit of a rhythm. I enjoy this time, trying to find the right pace. It’s when my mind starts getting into an even more ridiculous mood. One thought I remember playing with was it’d be funny if the marathon had evolved from something invented as the “half marathon”. Perhaps someone dared to ask, “Hey, why don’t we take this half marathon concept and double it into a full marathon.” Sometimes it’s worrying how my mind spends its time during a run.

After 4-5kms I hit trouble. This is the first time in a running event that I’ve suffered stomach cramps, and that I’ve had to stop during the race for a toilet break. Possibly related, it was the first time I’ve eaten my neighbour’s oily curry the night before a race.

I crashed and burned, or more correctly, I stopped and pooped at the first public toilet I could find.

The toilet happened to be a “squatty” – hole in the ground, however beggars can’t be choosers, so I did what I had to do.

Overall I finished in 1:37:33. Altho the race officials won’t hear a bar of it, if you remove the 22 minutes* I spent trying to manage the awkwardness of the bathroom, I would have had a podium finish, probably finishing 3rd overall. If you also minus tying laces twice, I may have given Cheetah from the Striders a run for his money for 1st place.

After the pitstop I felt physically fine. However I couldn’t really push up the tempo a whole lot. It may have been due to the missed chance to finish close to my best. Or another thought I had was, perhaps I’m rubbish at pushing myself to run fast when there’s no automated voice from my iPhone and the adidas miCoach app telling me to.

My real running goal is for the full Standard Chartered Dubai marathon on January 25, 2013. I’ve been training very well for it. I feel I’m in better shape now than I’ve ever been. When it came to this half marathon though, I didn’t do as well as I’d like. The old adage, ‘Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance’ may help explain why I didn’t get a finishing time to reflect better fitness than where I was last year.

It was lovely to see the Dubai Creek Striders official pacers doing a wonderful job to finish within their respective times. I loved their easily identifiable Pacers shirt with the time they’d finish, with a big “Inshallah” written beneath.

Any disappointment in my own missed goal time was long gone before the homeward stretch up to the Dubai Creek Yacht and Golf Club. This is where I saw my family, and my boys are now at the age where they run beside me to the finish – and I don’t need to slow down very much.

If crossing the finish line after 21.1km wasn’t satisfaction enough, there was a spectacular buffet breakfast with all the trimmings. Old runners, new runners, fast runners, slow runners, many of us went on to eat like Kings and Queens. A finisher’s breakfast is well-deserved. And as a result, it tastes amazing!

All in all, I had a wonderful day. I love seeing the beauty of a fit city participating as a single community. Runners come from all walks of life, yet for the few hours of this event we all shared something special which we’ll always have. And for the great majority of people, we’ll probably all do it again.

* may be exaggerated.

Are Bing searchers smarter than Google searchers?

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When I have Internet Explorer open, I use their embedded Search box to quickly find what I’m after.

Before I even finish typing, it’s often interesting to see what the search engines predict I’m searching for.

It’s quite an innovation to provide new web searchers with insights of what previous searchers were looking for.

Well, sometimes it’s helpful. Sometimes it’s a little worrying what gets submitted from the wisdom of crowds:

 

I have Google and Bing both available.

I thought it’d be interesting to see how they compare. Or should I say, how their respective search users compare – particularly, which side are asking dumber questions.

My comprehensive, objective analysis follows.

 

Exhibit A: What is…?

Of particular concern, Bing users asking “what is the time”. Is there any internet searching device without a visible clock? Or perhaps users know their time’s wrong, and this is the way kids today find the correct time. Or an abbreviated search to find time conversion sites? (I’m still concerned.)

Google searching overall here looks a bit like soul searching. It could be the start to the most obscure joke in history (which I don’t know the answer to):

Q: What do scientology, gypsy, love, and the illuminati have in common?

 

Exhibit B: Difference between …?

The stark difference I see is that Bing searchers look quite nerdy focusing on HD, smart phones, laptops, & economics. Googlers on the other hand are interested in food and alcohol nuances.

 

Exhibit C: Proof that…?

I found these common searches interesting. It seems people everywhere put their searches of the world wide web of information to good use, seeking proof of God and Jesus. In addition to this, Googlers seem to cast a wider net than Bing users to check on not only aliens and ghosts, but also vampires and mermaids.

And Google is suggesting that many people are still researching whether news of rapper Tupac’s death is greatly exaggerated or not. On this point, it seems there’s a glass half-full / half-empty thing going on. Surprisingly, the most popular “proof that” search overall is whether Tupac is alive. Then even more surprisingly, also in the list in sixth place is the query for “proof that tupac is dead”

 

Conclusion:

I think the analysis is inconclusive to say whether one group of search users are smarter than the other – dangit.

However, it does seems to me Googlers are asking a greater variety of interesting questions.

If I find any other interesting search suggestions in my travels I’ll post some more.

 

An update:
It’s interesting, and by total coincidence, just today The New York Times tweeted a link to an article they published on Bing/Google web search auto complete / auto suggest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/technology/in-search-engine-results-a-peek-at-what-we-wonder.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Review: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

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Review: A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian written by Marina Lewycka
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The obscure title sparked my interest, and it looked interesting from a flip thru in the airport bookstore. I’m very glad I bought it, as I couldn’t put down til I finished it. For me this is rare. It’s a beautiful story, with interesting characters. Took me somewhere completely new, although it gave a warm feeling like I had been there before.

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Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

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Review: Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything written by Steven D. Levitt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Levitt is a proud skeptic of conventional knowledge. His true skill is in asking questions of data that others don’t see, and making connections where it seems to make little sense.

The book has enjoyable twists, and it’s interesting for the thoughts it provokes.

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Review: Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference

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Review: Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference

Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference written by Tim Sanders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some compelling case studies of small things making a big difference in work offices.

A great read for those who are looking to make a difference, without resorting to hugging trees and eating only vegetables which don’t cast a shadow.

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Pet Holidays

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Ramadan has been and gone for another year.

It went relatively quickly for me.  My family returned home for four weeks – as the great majority of expats tend to do, to avoid Dubai’s summer assault. It was a smart move, the temperature was quite intense. I heard that Dubai had one day over the 50 degree mark.

Because of the standard need to have an extended holiday period, we’ve not bought any pets while here – apart from regularly replaceable gold fish.   We don’t like the idea of having to inconvenience and rely on others to feed them while away.

This doesn’t bother many people though. I was asked on a Thursday to feed a neighbor’s birds as he was leaving that evening. And the reason he suddenly became a pet owner without our knowledge is that his friend became a proud owner of a monkey (yes, monkey). The monkey-owner could no longer have other pets. So this Ramadan, we joined a bit of a domino effect of pet minding.

Once I agreed to feed the birds, I learned there were also two tanks of fish.

It sounded simple enough though. So I happily agreed.

And everything went well for a day or two. And then. The two angel fish died.

Oh no.

If that’s not bad enough, I think in that same tank one of the big gold fish looks a bit unwell.

I gave the two dead fish a proper burial, and sent them to the great toilet cistern in the sky.

The question now arises though. What do I do?

I was put in charge. I was entrusted to look after these fish. Killing them was not part of the deal!

My first thought was honesty is the best policy. I’ll wait for them to get back, then come clean that I killed their most beautiful of fish.

And then I had another idea, more around self-preservation and bad sit-com gag. Yes, angel fish look generic enough. Perhaps I could buy some new ones from the pet store around the corner. No one would notice the difference. Altho it sort of makes me wish I paid more attention to any identifying traits as they were laying in the bowl pre-flush.

The fish were dark brown. I have an inkling now they may have had light stripes also.

Either way, this kind of farce is not me.

Tonight’s the final night of animal feeding. The family return in the morning.

The body count so far is just two dead, once impressive, angel fish. Providing the two birds remain unscathed I think it’s an ok record. I fed them all as instructed. I’m hoping it’s not my fault. Although, the title of animal murderer is something that could be quite easily bandied about.

Providing there are no more casualties, I’ve decided I’ll write and leave a note from the angel fish. It’ll share that Ryan fed them perfectly well, they just decided to run away, and maybe join the circus. Or, as they’re called ‘angel fish’ perhaps they had a more heavenly calling – and Ryan wasn’t a killer, more of a facilitator.

Eid Mubarak.

And special celebrations to all the volunteer pet-sitters helping others while they’re off on holidays.

Hopefully tomorrow I won’t suffer a fate similar to the unfortunate angel fish.

The Olympics selection business case

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The “ruling” is in, Pippa Savage won’t compete at the London Olympics. A couple of weeks ago, Emma Snowsill also lost her “appeal”.
Olympic selection is no longer a sacred unassailable privilege. It’s a discriminatory process – potentially costing athlete’s opportunities, which is right for legal challenge.
Perhaps the athletes’ intentions are to make sure the selection criteria were followed in the interests of fairness. Perhaps their complaints are based on honorable ideals for a Nation to be represented by its best competitors.
I think such cases clearly demonstrate though, the event is obviously no longer a competition of amateurs. Commercially, it makes sense for the unselected to gamble the expense of legal teams, rather than miss the windfall of competing.
I think this trend is sad. Will people look back on our results and always wonder about selection choices and “what if..?”. Hopefully I won’t.
And hopefully the chosen athletes in the throws of training and competition are unburdened by their own concerns whether they are the right people to represent their country.
They’ve proven through healthy (often fierce) qualification events they were our country’s best.
This used to be more than enough.