June 30, 2015

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Sports June 30, 2015

With Seconds To Spare, 70-Year-Old Woman Finishes 100-Mile Endurance Race

Course map

The Western States Endurance Run is the world’s oldest 100-mile race — and among its toughest. Runners begin the race in Squaw Valley, Calif., climb more than 18,000 feet and descend nearly 23,000 feet before they reach the finish line in Auburn, Calif.

Here’s what that looks like:

http://www.wser.org/course/maps/

This year’s male winner was Rob Krar, 38, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who completed the course in 14:48:59. That’s an incredible time, of course. But the loudest cheers at the finish line on Sunday were reserved for 70-year-old Gunhild Swanson of Spokane Valley, Wash.

Here’s how Runner’s World describes what happened:

“With just 90 seconds left before the 30-hour cutoff time and 300 meters to go in the 100.2 mile race on Sunday, Gunhild Swanson … dug deep to became the oldest woman to complete the course in a time of 29 hours, 59 minutes, and 54 seconds.

“The real buzz began for Swanson at the final aid station — Robie Point — about 1.3 miles from the finish. Volunteers there began receiving word that Swanson was arriving soon and would only have about 16 minutes to make it to the finish on the Placer High School track in Auburn, California.

“Swanson and her support crew, which included friends, her son, and grandson, climbed up the steep incline to the aid station, where volunteers screamed to her to keep moving. Along that last push, Rob Krar — the overall winner of the race who claimed his victory nearly 15 hours earlier — joined Swanson and ran the last mile with her, wearing flip flops.”

In an interview with irunfar.com, a running website, Swanson described that last mile.

“Two friends, my pacers, another friend, Rob Krar, the winner of this race came down. He wasn’t waiting there, but he came down the road, and Tim Twietmeyer. Everybody started yelling at me and telling me what to do and pouring ice water all over me. Then I was told, “You have to run as hard as you possibly can. When you get to the track, you can’t let up. Down the hill you’re okay, but you have to maintain that pace. You have to go with all you possibly can on the track.” I came around and saw the clock. Oh, my gosh.”

This was Swanson’s third Western States race. She finished this year 6 seconds from the 30-hour cutoff, a new record for the 70-and-over category.

“In over 15 years of attending Western States I have never witnessed anything like what transpired in the track shortly before 11am on Sunday,” Andy Jones-Wilkins, an ultrarunner, wrote on the race’s Facebook page.

You can also watch the video of Swanson finishing the race here.

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Entertainment June 30, 2015

Latitudes: The Global Music You Must Hear In June

The Barmer Boys of Rajasthan, India.

The Barmer Boys of Rajasthan, India. Courtesy of the artists hide caption

itoggle caption Courtesy of the artists

This month, some very old songs from India and England rub shoulders with new sounds from Madagascar and Japan — along with one emerging Hawaiian hit, courtesy of Pixar and Disney.

Unfortunately, the summer touring schedule has been wracked by visa problems for international artists trying to enter the U.S. Among the performers caught up in the current cycle of delays seem to be India’s Barmer Boys, a group of Sufi folk musicians from Rajasthan, India, who have had to cancel their U.S. tour. (They were able to keep their Canadian dates.) If you have to miss out on seeing them now, this should give you a tantalizing preview of their full-hearted shows before their next attempt to reach these shores.

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If you’ve seen Pixar’s newest hit Inside Out, you’ve already heard the song “Lava” — it’s the basis for the short that precedes the film. Written by James Ford Murphy, this sweet, Hawaiian-style ode is performed by two stars from the Hawaiian music scene, Kuana Torres Kahele and Napua Greig. It’s about a lonely volcano who yearns for his one true love. And it wouldn’t be surprising if “Lava” becomes nearly as much of a favorite as another Hawaiian ukelele performance widely beloved amongst mainstream music fans, Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

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I’m head over heels for the work of London-based singer and “song collector” Sam Lee, who’s made it his life’s work to find and learn the music of the Roma (Gyspies) and Irish Traveler communities in the UK — and then to perform them with gorgeously framing textures, as in this performance of “Blackbird.” Another of Lee’s performances, of the Napoleonic-era tune “Bonny Bunch of Roses,” has made it onto our massive mid-year list of Songs We Love, and I’ll bet you will be hearing even more of him in the months ahead.

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What’s burning hot in Japan right now: a band named Gesu no Kiwami Otome, whose style has been described as playful. But I hear something more in their music, as on their track “Not a Me Other than Me” — which shares deep, deep musical DNA with Weather Report and prog rock. This track reached No. 3 on the Japanese charts back in May; their latest single, “Romance ga Ariamaru,” has reached No. 2 and counting.

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Our friends and colleagues over at the public radio program Afropop Worldwide like to go deep in cultures — “Hip Deep,” as they say. Their latest adventure was in Madagascar, the tantalizingly multicultural island off the east coast of Africa. While there, they captured the breathless sound of tsapiky (pronounced “tsah-PEEK”), an electric guitar-based dance music rooted in the southwest of the island.

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Business June 30, 2015

The Truth About Business Lies

The old saying goes that if you want people to believe something, you should keep saying it over and over. People will get used to hearing the lie and they will start to believe it…

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Featured News June 30, 2015

Research and Markets: Hairy Cell Leukemia – Pipeline Review, H1 2015

DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fv6qlb/hairy_cell) has announced the addition of the Hairy Cell Leukemia – Pipeline Review, H1 2015 report to their offering. This report provides comprehensive information on the therapeutic development for Hairy Cell…

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Business June 30, 2015

Wisdom Of The Crowds? Online Effort Seeks To Raise Funds For Greece

A collection of old Greek Drachma and euro notes and coins.

A collection of old Greek Drachma and euro notes and coins. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

Updated at 12:14 p.m. ET

Only 1,599,888,909 euros to go. A crowd-funding effort to raise the 1.6 billion euros (about $1.8 billion) Greece needs to make a loan payment to the International Monetary Fund has so far raised 111,091 euros ($124,569) from 7,275 donors.

The organizer of the effort on IndieGogo says the European Union’s 503 million people need to chip in just over 3 euros each ($3.37).

“That’s about the same as half a pint in London. Or everyone in the EU just having a Feta and Olive salad for lunch,” the organizer writes. “So come on, order a Feta and Olive salad, maybe wash it down with an Ouzo or glass of Assyrtiko greek wine and let’s sort this s —- – out.”

Here’s more:

“Pledge €3 and get a postcard sent from Greece of Alex Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister. We’ll get them made and posted in Greece and give a boost to some local printers and post offices.

“Pledge €6 and get a greek Feta and Olive salad

“Pledge €10 and get a small bottle of Ouzo sent to you

“Pledge €25 and get a bottle of Greek wine”

The effort also offers a Greek food basket for 160 euros (about $180), a Greek holiday for two for 5,000 euros (about $5,616) and “gratitude from citizens of Europe and particularly from the Greek people” for 1 million euros ($1.12 million).

The effort’s organizer is Thom Feeney, 29, who works in a shoe shop in London. He insists the effort isn’t a joke. He says:

“I can understand why people might take it as a joke, but Crowdfunding can really help because it’s just a case of getting on and doing it. I was fed up of the Greek crisis going round in circles, while politicians are dithering, this is affecting real people. While all the posturing is going on, then it’s easy for the politicians to forget that. I just thought, sod it, I’ll have a crack.”

Those donating money have seven days to make the goal. If they don’t, they get a refund. Feeney says he believes Europeans are generous enough to save Greece:

“Europeans are pretty generous on the whole, maybe Ms [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] and Mr [British Prime Minister David] Cameron are the exception. There are 500 million people in the EU and actually, it wouldn’t cost each person much to just sort it out ourselves. I’m confident the people of Europe will get this campaign and some time soon we’ll all be raising a glass of Ouzo and having a bloody great big celebration.”

Feeney tells NPR’s Jackie Northam that he woke up today to “1,200 emails and 30 friend requests from Greek women.

“And this day’s gone even crazier from there.”

Of course, the 1.6 billion euros Greece must repay the IMF by 5 p.m. ET today is just a tiny fraction of what the country’s owes. The Council on Foreign Relations estimates that Greece owes the IMF, one of its many creditors, $26 billion. And this Wall Street Journal interactive explains what Greece owes its creditors and when.

Greece faces a possible exit from the eurozone, the bloc of countries that use the euro, if it defaults on its loan to the IMF.

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