KPAC Trail Run 2012

1st runner passing baton to 2nd runner - part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJgdI0GjvNk&feature=youtu.be

KPAC Trail Relay 2012

Watch the flagoff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsZRKQ6WMnk&feature=youtu.be



Team 1st runner passing baton to 2nd runner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PzerqMUb4

Arena Green, Bukit Jalil 3R2B available for rent after 1st of August 2012

Arena Green, Bukit Jalil 3R2B available for rent after 1st of August 2012

 

An accommodation option for APIIT, UCTI , IMU student and also young working adults working in TPM (Technology Park Malaysia

Property Details

• Property Type:Apartment 
• Availability : 1st of August 2012 onwards
• Built-Up:900 sq. ft.
• Rental Price:RM 1550
• Bedrooms:3
• Bathrooms:2
• Furnishing:Fully Furnished with

          - Fridge , Washing Machine, 1 air cond room and 2 rooms with fan,  Water heater,  

            Sofa, TV,dining tables and Kitchen utensil, iron . Each room is also fully equip with 

            bed frame , wardrobe and table

• Facilities:Covered Parking, Playground, 24hr Security  
• More photos coming up soon.
•  
• Call Michelle at 0122933020

Kiara Awareness Walk - 15July2012

Finally, after months of toiling by nature lovers, hikers, runners, MTBikers, 15th July was memorable.

More than 1,000 people gathered to support Save Bukit Kiara Awareness Walk.

Everyone have the same thing in mind. To voice out to the relevant authorities...Gazette Bukit Kiara!

Right after completing BHP Orange Run, runners came straight to Kiara to support the cause.

Monday July 16, 2012

Nature lovers do their bit for Bukit Kiara

By VIJENTHI NAIR
vijenthi@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Nature lovers walked the talk by turning up in large numbers at Bukit Kiara to call for the green lung to be gazetted.
Signatures were also collected for a petition during the one hour walk organised by the Friends of Bukit Kiara at 8am yesterday.
The petition, among others, wants a stop to all construction work at Bukit Kiara. It will be submitted to Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung.

For a good cause: Some of the people who turned up for the walk organised by the Friends of Bukit Kiara.

In October last year, the National Landscape Department started putting up a 3.5m-high fence along a 4.7km stretch as part of an upgrading project to demarcate the park and increase security for visitors.
The construction, which is still ongoing, caused an estimated 3,000 mature trees to be felled, trails to be damaged and has affected water quality in the area.
Selangor Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) chairman Henry Goh said the gazetting was promised by the Federal Territories Ministry back in 2006 and is still pending.
“There is a proposal to construct arboretums, buildings and cement lanes, as well as shop lots and a food court within the forest.
“We are not against development but it should not be done at the expense of nature,” said Goh, who took part in the walk.
Others included MNS president Prof Dr Maketab Mohamed, Trails Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (Traks) president Scott Roberts, Global Environmental Centre (GEC) River Care Programme coordinator Dr K. Kalithasan, The Star group chief editor Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai and Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng.
Chor had earlier explained that clearing work being done at Bukit Kiara was to ensure it stays a green lung reserve.
He said the security fencing was built by the Landscape Department to protect the park from illegal encroachment.
He was also quoted as saying the paths were cleared to bring the equipment and material for the fencing. However, some residents had expressed concern that the clearing work was a prelude to commercial development.

Monday July 16, 2012

Construction works in Bukit Kiara causing much damage to the hill

By VIJENTHI NAIR
vijenthi@thestar.com.my
Photos By RAYMOND OOI

IT WAS not just another walk in the park.
More than 1,000 people turned up to join a peaceful awareness walk at Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur yesterday wearing custom-made “Save Bukit Kiara” T-shirt in a silent protest against the current developments on the Kiara hill.
Bukit Kiara has been subjected to a certain degree of damage with the construction of a 3.5m high fence along a 4.7km stretch by the National Landscape Department (JLN).

Pledging their support: Participants of the “Save Bukit Kiara” awareness walk taking time off to sign the petition before proceeding with the journey up the hill.

It is part of an upgrading project to demarcate the area and increase security for visitors.
The construction has upset many Bukit Kiara visitors and environmentalists.
The construction, which is still going on, has resulted in around 3,000 matured trees felled and some trails damaged, among others.
The massive earthworks have also affected the pristine water body in the heart of the hill and all the points downstream.
During the walk, a sizeable number of participants also took onto the trails themselves, coming up from the pond at the Lembah Kiara Park on a trail called Park Connector to join the walk, while others were led onto Magic Carpet and 2K, so they got a feel of the two popular trails in Bukit Kiara.
Mountain bikers, some from as far as Singapore, also turned up to show their support to save the trails, which are known to be among the best mountain biking trails in Asia.
Signatures were also collected to submit a petition to Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung, demanding a stop to all construction works, requesting frequent dialogues with the stakeholders and the complete gazettement of the hill as a permanent forest reserve by the end of the year.
So far, more than 10,000 signatures have been collected.

Cause of damage: The 3.5m high security fencing that extends to about 4.7km.

The Star executive director and group chief editor Datuk Seri Wong Chun Wai and his wife Datin Seri Florence Wong, who also participated in the walk, said they supported the pledge to protect Bukit Kiara as a green lung.
“The hills are our treasure and heritage.
“There is a great need for the authorities to convince the Friends of Bukit Kiara that the hill will remain as it is. We will remain vigilant in highlighting the cause to protect Bukit Kiara just as The Star is passionate about saving the hills of Penang,” said Wong, who was joined by his colleagues from the StarMetro desk.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Friends of Bukit Kiara, Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), Trails Association of Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Taman Tun Dr Ismail Residents Association and Global Environment Centre have been trying to save and preserve the park in the most natural way possible.
Spotted among the many mountain bikers was Singaporean Eric Tan who travelled more than 400km just to show his support.
“I have been cycling for about 10 years and frequent the trails in Singapore and Johor but not one is even close to what Bukit Kiara has to offer.
“My Singaporean friends who tried the trails had nothing but rave reviews for it. True enough, I really love it. The challenging trail is one of the best I have ever experienced. I only started cycling in Bukit Kiara early this year, but I have been coming here ever since.
“I am sure Bukit Kiara also attracts many mountain bikers from the region, like me. It is a shame if such beautiful trails, maintained well by the public voluntarily is lost because of development. For example, Bukit Timah in Singapore has lost its green appeal after condominiums were built in the vicinity. Instead of lush greenery, you are greeted by concrete buildings.
“Bukit Kiara is a beauty and I really hope the trails are preserved in its natural state for the younger generation,” he said.
Mountain bikers from Pedalholics Cycling Club were also spotted among the crowd.
One of its members, Peter Choong, said the trails were a favourite among the mountain bikers and during the group’s fortnightly rides, they have been witnessing damage to the trails.
“Volunteers and mountain bikers have painstakingly cleared and maintained these trails over the years and for it to be damaged in just months, is unacceptable. The trails leading to Desa Sri Hartamas side are badly damaged.
“We are here to show our support. Bukit Kiara attracts plenty of expatriates too, so by encouraging this kind of violation of the park, we don’t look good to the rest of the world,” said Choong.
Spotted during the walk was expatriate Michael Wilson from New Zealand, who carried his young son Matai on his shoulders, during the the walk.
Wilson, who operates a cafe and lives in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, said the hill was being destroyed in the name of development.
“My wife is Malaysian and I have got everything going on for me right here. My business is doing well and I live in a lovely neighbourhood, which is close to the beautiful park,” he said.
His friend Paul Wellington from United Kingdom, who has been in Malaysia for eight years, also brought along his son named Sol.

Save the hill: Choong (front, in green vest) with his friends from the Pedalholics Cycling Club striking a pose with their bicycles before the ride.

“I do not understand the need for the fences in the first place. The authorities justified the fencing by citing preservation and preventing encroachment, but surely there’s a better way of doing it without harming nature,” he said.
A frequent park-goer who only wanted to be known as Tan was exercising with her husband before the journey up the hill.
Tan said that looking at what was happening to the hill, she felt that the authorities did not place much importance on conserving nature and the public’s needs.
“My husband and I have been using the park for the last 10 years.
“The Government has been encouraging Malaysians to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Bukit Kiara is a great place for outdoor activities. The Government should in fact create more recreational parks to encourage people to be active,” she said.
“The park is used by many people every day. In the past we have heard of many empty promises of preserving green lungs and fields in other areas, only for it to be taken away for development later.
“If the park is going to be preserved as a green lung, there should be no delay in the gazettement,” she said.

BHP Orange Run - part 3, near finish line at eCurve

Watch the Top10 finishers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klw-h9uqO9g

Good Friends

July 15

Good Friends

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. PROVERBS 17:17

H. Clark Bentall once headed the Bentall Corporation, a construction company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. Five downtown office towers in that city bear his family's name. He was a major player in the commercial construction and real estate business.

But late in life, after a 50-year career with the company, he found himself in a disagreement with his brothers, who leveraged Clark out of the day-to-day operations and eventually out of the business altogether. Shortly thereafter, his wife of 57 years lost her battle with cancer, and Clark himself was soon stricken with Alzheimer's disease.

There he was—in his early 80s, alone with no work and no wife—and with his ability to grasp what was going on around him beginning to slowly evaporate.

A man who once had everything now had nothing.

But in the years before the fog of Alzheimer's engulfed him, Clark Bentall had invested thoroughly and genuinely in his friendships. And now, in his time of need, every Tuesday and Thursday morning some of his best friends would come over for breakfast, just to talk and say thanks . . . for everything. As the weeks and months went by, Clark had less and less to contribute to the stimulating conversation and shared memories. But still they came, for over four years.

That could be you one day. Alone. Dependent on the obligations of family members and the goodwill of neighbors and friends. Will you have invested enough in people's lives to make them want to come see you, even when you're not as much fun as you used to be?

Now is the time to pour your heart into others—not just to look ahead to the future, but also to make a difference in their lives today.

DISCUSS

Talk about your friendships. List your best ones. Talk about how you could help one another do a better job of building friendships.

PRAY

Give thanks to God for "kindred spirit" friends. And if you don't have many, ask Him to bless your life with a few more.

Source:  http://www.oneplace.com

BHP ORange Run 2012 - part 2, men flagoff

BHP Orange Run 2012

Men flagoff

Kenyans started to pull away as early as 200m

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYT4xMOawBE&feature=youtu.be

BHP Orange Run 2012 part 1

This is the first flagoff...the ladies!

End of the video you'll see the guys getting ready to chase the ladies! Hahaha!

Run Ladies Run!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngiSWFOs2xA&feature=youtu.be

Lee Kuan Yew On Getting the Best out of Life

Lee Kuan Yew On  Getting the Best out of Life 

“The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge.

If you’re not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.”

 MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about aging and what aging societies can do.

You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of aging.

If I cast my mind back, I can see turning points in my physical and mental health. You know, when you’re young, I didn’t bother, assumed good health was God-given and would always be there.

When I was about 57 that was – I was about 34, we were competing in elections, and I was really fond of drinking beer and smoking.  And after the election campaign, in Victoria Memorial Hall – we had won the election, the City Council election – I couldn’t thank the voters because I had lost my voice. I’d been smoking furiously. I’d take a packet of 10 to deceive myself, but I’d run through the packet just sitting on the stage, watching the crowd, getting the feeling, the mood before I speak.

In other words, there were three speeches a night. Three speeches a night, 30 cigarettes, a lot of beer after that, and the voice was gone. I remember I had a case in Kuching, Sarawak . So I took the flight and I felt awful. I had to make up my mind whether I was going to be an effective campaigner and a lawyer, in which case I cannot destroy my voice, and I can’t go on.

So I stopped smoking. It was a tremendous deprivation because I was addicted to it. And I used to wake up dreaming…the nightmare was I resumed smoking.

But I made a choice and said, if I continue this, I will not be able to do my job. I didn’t know anything about cancer of the throat, or oesophagus or the lungs, etc. But it turned out it had many other deleterious effects. Strangely enough after that, I became very allergic, hyper-allergic to smoking, so much so that I would plead with my Cabinet ministers not to smoke in the Cabinet room. You want to smoke, please go out, because I am allergic.

Then one day I was at the home of my colleague, Mr Rajaratnam, meeting foreign correspondents including some from the London Times and they took a picture of me and I had a big belly like that (puts his hands in front of his belly), a beer belly. I felt no, no, this will not do. So I started playing more golf, hit hundreds of balls on the practice tee. But this didn’t go down. There was only one way it could go down: consume less, burn up more.

Another turning point came in 1976, after the general election – I was feeling tired. I was breathing deeply at the Istana, on the lawns. My daughter, who at that time just graduating as a doctor, said: ‘What are you trying to do?’ I said: ‘I feel an effort to breathe in more oxygen.’ She said: ‘Don’t play golf. Run. Aerobics..’ So she gave me a book, quite a famous book and, then, very current in America on how you score aerobic points swimming, running, whatever it is, cycling.

I looked at it sceptically. I wasn’t very keen on running. I was keen on golf. So I said, ‘Let’s try’. So in-between golf shots while playing on my own, sometimes nine holes at the Istana, I would try and walk fast between shots. Then I began to run between shots. And I felt better. After a while, I said: ‘Okay, after my golf, I run.’ And after a few years, I said: ‘Golf takes so long. The running takes 15 minutes. Let’s cut out the golf and let’s run.’

I think the most important thing in aging is you got to understand yourself. And the knowledge now is all there. When I was growing up, the knowledge wasn’t there. I had to get the knowledge from friends, from doctors.

But perhaps the most important bit of knowledge that the doctor gave me  was one day, when I said: ‘Look,  I’m feeling slower and sluggish.’ So he gave me a medical encyclopaedia and he turned the pages to aging. I read it up and it was illuminating. A lot of it was difficult jargon but I just skimmed through to get the gist of it.

As you grow, you reach 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and then, thereafter, you are on a gradual slope down physically. Mentally, you carry on and on and on until I don’t know what age, but mathematicians will tell you that they know their best output is when they’re in their 20s and 30s when your mental energy is powerful and you haven’t lost many neurons. That’s what they tell me.

So, as you acquire more knowledge, you then craft a programme for yourself to maximise what you have. It’s just common sense. I never planned to live till 85 or 84.! I just didn’t think about it. I said: ‘Well, my mother died when she was 74, she had a stroke.. My father died when he was 94.’

But I saw him, and he lived a long life, well, maybe it was his DNA. But more than that, he swam every day and he kept himself busy! He was working for the Shell company. He was in charge, he was a superintendent of an oil depot.

When he retired, he started becoming a salesman. So people used to tell me: ‘Your father is selling watches at BP de Silva.’ My father was then living with me. But it kept him busy. He had that routine: He meets people, he sells watches, he buys and sells all kinds of semi-precious stones, he circulates coins. And he keeps going. But at 87, 88, he fell, going down the steps from his room to the dining room, broke his arm, three months incapacitated.

Thereafter, he couldn’t go back to swimming. Then he became wheelchair-bound. Then it became a problem because my house was constructed that way. So my brother – who’s a doctor and had a flat (one-level) house – took him in. And he lived on till 94. But towards the end, he had gradual loss of mental powers.

So my calculations, I’m somewhere between 74 and 94. And I’ve reached the halfway point now. But have I? Well, 1996 when I was 73, I was cycling and I felt tightening on the neck. Oh, I must retire today. So I stopped. Next day, I returned to the bicycle. After five minutes it became worse. So I said, no, no, this is something serious, it’s got to do with the blood vessels. Rung up my doctor, who said, ‘Come tomorrow’. Went tomorrow, he checked me, and said: ‘Come back tomorrow for an angiogram.’

I said: ‘What’s that ?’ He said: ‘We’ll pump something in and we’ll see whether the coronary arteries are cleared or blocked.’ I was going to go home. But an MP who was a cardiologist happened to be around, so he came in and said: ‘What are you doing here?’ I said: ‘I’ve got this.’ He said: ‘Don’t go home. You stay here tonight. I’ve sent patients home and they never came back. Just stay here. They’ll put you on the monitor. They’ll watch your heart. And if anything, an emergency arises, they will take you straight to the theatre. You go home. You’ve got no such monitor. You may never come back.’

So I stayed there. Pumped in the dye, yes it was blocked, the left circumflex, not the critical, lead one. So that’s lucky for me. Two weeks later, I was walking around, I felt it’s coming back. Yes it has come back, it had occluded. So this time they said: ‘We’ll put in a stent.’

I’m one of the first few in Singapore to have the stent, so it was a brand new operation. Fortunately, the man who invented the stent was out here selling his stent. He was from San Jose, La Jolla something or the other. So my doctor got hold of him and he supervised the operation.  He said put the stent in. My doctor did the operation, he just watched it all and then that’s that. That was before all this pr`oblem about lining the stent to make sure that it doesn’t occlude and create a disturbance.

So at each stage, I learnt something more about myself and I stored that. I said: ‘Oh, this is now a danger point.’ So all right, cut out fats, change diet, went to see a specialist in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital. He said: ‘Take statins.’ I said: ‘What’s that?’ He said: ‘(They) help to reduce your cholesterol.’ My doctors were concerned. They said: ‘You don’t need it. Your cholesterol levels are okay.’ Two years later, more medical evidence came out. So the doctors said: ‘Take statins.’

Had there been no angioplasty, had I not known that something was up and I cycled on, I might have gone at 74 like my mother. So I missed that decline. So next deadline: my father’s fall at 87. I’m very careful now because sometimes when I turn around too fast, I feel as if I’m going to get off balance. So my daughter, a neurologist, she took me to the NNI, there’s this nerve conduction test, put electrodes here and there.

The transmission of the messages between the feet and the brain has slowed down. So all the exercise, everything, effort put in, I’m fit, I swim, I cycle. But I can’t prevent this losing of conductivity of the nerves and this transmission. So just go slow.

So when I climb up the steps, I have no problem. When I go down the steps, I need to be sure that I’ve got something I can hang on to, just in case. So it’s a constant process of adjustment.

But I think the most important single lesson I learnt in life was that if you isolate yourself, you’re done for. The human being is a social animal – he needs stimuli, he needs to meet people, to catch up with the world.

I don’t much like travel but I travel very frequently despite the jetlag, because I get to meet people of great interest to me, who will help me in my work as chairman of our GIC. So I know, I’m on several boards  of banks, international advisory boards of banks, of oil companies and so on. And I meet them and I get to understand what’s happening in the world, what has changed since I was here one month ago, one year ago.

I go to India, I go to China. And that stimuli brings me to the world of today. I’m not living in the world, when I was active, more active 20, 30 years ago. So I tell my wife. She woke up late today. I said: ‘Never mind, you come along by 12 o’clock. I go first.’

If you sit back – because part of the ending part of the encyclopaedia which I read was very depressing – as you get old, you withdraw from everything and then all you will have is your bedroom and the photographs and the furniture that you know, and that’s your world. So if you’ve got to go to hospital, the doctor advises you to bring some photographs so that you’ll know you’re not lost in a different world, that this is like your bedroom.

I’m determined that I will not, as long as I can, to be reduced, to have my horizons closed on me like that. It is the stimuli, it is the constant interaction with people across the world that keeps me aware and alive to what’s going on and what we can do to adjust to this different world.

In other words, you must have an interest in life. If you believe that at 55, you’re retiring, you’re going to read books, play golf and drink wine, then I think you’re done for. So statistically they will show you that all the people who retire and lead sedentary lives, the pensioners die off very quickly.

So we now have a social problem with medical sciences, new procedures, new drugs, many more people are going to live long lives..

If the mindset is that when I reach retirement age 62, I’m old, I can’t work anymore, I don’t have to work, I just sit back, now is the time I’ll enjoy life, I think you’re making the biggest mistake of your life. After one month, or after two months, even if you go traveling with nothing to do, with no purpose in life, you will just degrade, you’ll go to seed.

The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. If you’re not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.

So when I read that people believe, Singaporeans say: ‘Oh, 62 I’m retiring.’ I say to them: ‘You really want to die quickly?’ If you want to see sunrise tomorrow or sunset, you must have a reason, you must have the stimuli to keep going..’

Have a purpose driven life and finish well, my friends. 

If you have to fall, do fall like a seed to germinate, unlike a leaf to die.

Tomato juice shows sports nutrition potential

By Stephen Daniells, 07-May-2012

A daily glass of antioxidant-rich tomato juice may reduce markers of oxidative stress and damage after exhaustive exercise, suggests a new study.

Five weeks of drinking 150 ml per day of tomato juice was associated with a reduction in levels of 8-dihydro-2’-deoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), a marker of oxidative DNA damage, in 15 untrained healthy subjects.
Results published in the Nutrition Journal indicated that exercise increased 8-oxodG by between 42 and 84% during the control phase of the study, but tomato juice prevented any such increases.
“It might be hypothesized that long term intake of tomato juice may reduce oxidative stress levels in patients with enhanced level of oxidative stress, for example, patients with diabetes, cardiovascular diseases or inflammation,” reported scientists from Stockholm University in Sweden.
Oxygen-breathing organisms naturally produce reactive oxygen species (ROS), which play an important role in a range of functions, including cell signaling. However, over production of these ROS from smoking, pollution, sunlight, high intensity exercise, or simply aging, may overwhelm the body’s antioxidant defenses and lead to oxidative stress.
Study details
The Stockholm-based researchers recruited 15 untrained healthy subjects to participate in their study. Participants were asked to perform a 20 min physical exercise at 80% of maximum pulse using an ergometer, and had their blood taken before and 60 minutes after the exercise.
The subjects then consumed 150 ml of tomato juice providing 15 mg of lycopene every day for five weeks. They re-performed the exercise. This was followed by a five week ‘washout’ period and then five more weeks of tomato juice consumption.

Results showed the initial bout of exercise increased 8-oxodG levels by 42%, while no such increases were observed after the first five weeks of tomato juice consumption.
After the five week washout period, exercise increased 8-oxodG levels by an average of 84%, said the Stockholm-based researchers. Five more weeks of tomato juice consumption again prevented any such increases in 8-oxodG levels.
Bioactives
“It is important to mention that beside lycopene tomatoes also contain vitamin C, tocopherols and polyphenols,” said the researchers. “It has been shown that among all antioxidants (in particular carotenoids) present in tomato juice, lycopene is the most abundant and stable during industrial food processing.
“Vitamin C and tocopherols in fresh tomato are destroyed by heating during food processing. Not much is known about the polyphenols in tomato juice.
“Therefore, we believe that the antioxidant activity of tomato juice is primarily due to its content of lycopene.”
Source: Nutrition Journal
2012, 11:29, doi:10.1186/1475-2891-11-29
“Tomato juice intake suppressed serum concentration of 8-oxodG after extensive physical activity”
Author: M. Harms-Ringdahl, D. Jenssen, S. Haghdoost