Yuumoushin.com (勇猛心)

When I lived in Japan, I took full advantage of my free time.

I went canyoning a couple of times, rolled down a hill in the Zorb (was pretty dizzy afterwards), rode the giant slides in Chichibu, climbed to the top of Mt. Fuji, and even got to do some intense mountain biking.

Now I have to ask myself, what’s next? After a conversation with a good friend of mine the other day, I think I’ve figured it out: hang gliding. Whether that will happen this year or not, I can’t say. But one of the honeymoon destinations Keiko and I are considering is New Zealand, and according to Everything Queenstown:

Imagine running down a slope, the wind in your face and with every step you take your whole body becomes lighter and lighter until, quite magically, you take flight. Watch in awe as a panorama unfolds before you – mountainous ancient pillars of rock, powerful winding rivers, and glistening tranquil lakes. The feeling of weightlessness, sheer exhilaration and wonder that come with hang-gliding is an unparalleled experience. Swoop and dive at speeds of up to 80km/h or just gently float above the views.

Take the controls and fly the glider under supervision from our professional pilots or let our highly experienced team make your enjoyment and safety their priority. Skytrek offers the best priced hang gliding experience in Queenstown. It’s also the least weather-affected hang gliding operation – unlike others, we fly all year round.

Sounds like a winner to me.

34,000 is the number of jobs cut by Wall street banks since they were hit by mortgage losses and writedowns. The number is tallied over the last 9 months, and is based on the following (per Bloomberg):

Firm and number of Positions Cut (Some company names have been abbreviated. *Goldman Sachs said on Jan. 25 that its job cuts reflected the firm’s policy of weeding out underperformers).

Citigroup 6,200
Lehman Brothers 4,990
Bank of America 3,650
Morgan Stanley 2,940
Washington Mutual 2,600
Merrill Lynch 2,220
HSBC 1,650
Bear Stearns 1,550
WestLB 1,530
UBS 1,500
Goldman Sachs 1,500*
National City 900
Credit Suisse 820
Royal Bank of Canada 500
Fortis 500
Wells Fargo 500
Wachovia 443
Deutsche Bank 370
JPMorgan Chase 100

____________
TOTAL 34,463

And what will this look like in a few years? Only time will tell, but the market tends to be a bit more resilient than the gentleman below perscribes.

“This crisis is much worse than 2001 and we don’t know how long it’s going to last,” said Jo Bennett, a partner at executive search firm Battalia Winston International in New York. Job cuts “could be more than 100,000 in a few years.”

According to a NY Times article:

Based on national averages, a 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16 push-ups and a man the same age should be able to do 27. By the age of 60, those numbers drop to 17 for men and 6 for women. Those numbers are just slightly less than what is required of Army soldiers who are subjected to regular push-up tests.

I wonder what the NY Times considers a pushup. As an average, I believe the above numbers are too high.

According to the rules listed here, the following conditions must be met:

The palms must be at shoulder-width. The body must remain straight throughout, i.e., no bending at knees or waist. The body must be lowered until at least 90 degree-angle is attained at the elbow and the body is parralel to the ground. The body must then be raised until the arms are straight. This equals one push-up. All pushups should be made on a hard surface. This basic principle applies to all our push-up entries with minor modifications.

And of course, there are variations:

Finger tip: instead of the palm of both hands touching the floor, only the finger tips (including the tip of the thumb) may touch.
One arm: Only one arm may be used and the same arm must be used throughout the attempt. In this attempt the hand is placed flat on the floor.

One finger: Only one finger of one hand may be used. The thumb may not be used.

The record is for the number of repetitions; no rest breaks are permitted. The one-finger position must be maintained throughout. The side of the index finger must not be used as this means other parts of the hand will come in contact with the ground and therefore invalidate the attempt.

And what is the current record, you might ask?

Here are a few from the rule’s site I linked to above:

WORLD RECORDS

non-stop: 10,507; Minoru Yoshida (JAP), Oct 1980 DETAILS

one year: 1,500,230; Paddy Doyle (GBR), Oct 1988 – Oct 1989

24 hours: 46,001; Charles Servizio (USA), 24/25 April 1993 at Hesperia
(new record claim, not yet verified: Jeffrey Warrick (USA), 46300)

1 hour: 3,877; Bijender Singh (IND), 20 Sept 1988

30 minutes: 2,354; Rolf Heck (GER), 13 Nov 2000

10 minutes (women): 426; Renata Hamplová (TCH), Rekord-Klub SAXONIA Record Festival in Schwedt, 2 Sept 1995

5 minutes: 441; Giuseppe Cusano (GBR), Loftus Road Soccer Stadium at the Fulham v. Portsmouth game on 24 Nov 2003

3 minutes (women): 190; Renata Hamplová (TCH), Record Festival Pelhrimov 1995

one-armed, one week (168 hours): 16,723; Paddy Doyle (GBR), Feb 1996 in Birmingham

one-handed handstand pushups: Yury Tikhonovich (Russia) did twelve pushups while standing on one hand in June 2006 at the Starclub variete in Kassel (Germany).

on fists: 5557 (in 3:02:30 hours), Doug Pruden (CAN), 9 July 2004, Body Quest Health Club Edmonton

Train hard! haha.

Ungrateful:
1. Not feeling or exhibiting gratitude, thanks, or appreciation.
2. Not agreeable or pleasant; repellent:

Example:

According to Forbes, Seattle is the 3rd greediest city in the US. Why? Well, according the site’s analysis:

The billionaires may be fewer here than in California’s computing enclaves, but the fortunes are spectacular. The first, 11th and 16th richest Americans, all spawned by Microsoft, make the Seattle area home. Ur-microserf Bill Gates has a net worth of $59 billion; Paul Allen, $16.8 billion; and Steven Ballmer, $15.2 billion. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, with $8.7 billion, also lives here. No wonder this city gave rise to the $4 latte. Trickle-down wealth goes to coffee, coffee, and more coffee.

Las Vegas didn’t even make the top 10. I think it might have more to do with the people who actually live in Vegas versus the people who visit Vegas (with the latter being “greedier,” and thus likely to skew the results??).

It’s funny, however, that they reference Bill Gates in the “greedy class.” He just so happens to be one of the most charitable people, having donated billions (and more to come since he’s essentially giving up most of his wealth to his foundation). Furthermore, in a recent announcement, Steve Ballmer will try to “save” the Sonics from being taken out of Seattle, and back in the day, Paul Allen tried to donate all of South Lake Union to the city of Seattle (to turn it into a huge park for the community), but the voters turned it down. Sure, there are a large number of wealthy people here, but I don’t know that wealth = greed. I’d like to understand the Forbe’s analysis’ underlying metrics better.

Check out Forbe’s “America’s Most Sinful Cities” list.