For Weekend Athletes, Groups Can Be More Fun

HONG KONGâ€"Groups can be more fun. That’s a growing consensus among amateur athletes around the world.

Rather than run that marathon all by one’s lonesome, many weekend warriors are participating in races that require a team of two or four to get through a course.

The advantages of training and racing with buddies, of course, include the camaraderie, as well as a healthy dose of peer pressure to stick with a training regimen. If your teammates are more experienced, you may glean tips on health and nutrition, and you can share any logistics or organizational workload.

Perhaps the greatest advantage to teaming up is that there’s safety in numbers. Running with others, for instance, can make entering the world of amateur racing easier and less intimidating.

My colleague and friend, Bettina Wassener, has biked throughout Germany and trekked in Nepal, but on Saturday she will paticipate in her first race: the Green Power Hike, a 50 kilometer event through the hills of Hong Kong, as part of a three-person team. I can tell she’s caught the bug because she’s already talking about competing in December in the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon, which is a solo 21.1 kilometer race though the famed ancient temples in Cambodia.

The disadvantages of team training and events are less numerous, at least for someone like me who races just for fun. You may end up moving faster than you normally would, which can lead to injury, or slower, which can be underwhelming. Busy people may find training difficult to schedule. But that’s life.

I’ve done both team and solo events and like both equally. One evening this week as I ran (alone) along this scenic route up and down Hong Kongâ€! ™s famous Victoria Peak, I got to thinking about Bettina and her team’s approach to Saturday’s race. They’re right on target. They trained frequently over the last few months and they got over the hurdle of early weekend wake-ups by rewarding themselves with a restaurant or pub visit at their destination.

During Saturday’s race, they planned to stick closely together along the route because scattering can be disheartening for straggling members. As a team, they banned the use of headphones. And they required themselves to show up with three jokes each to break up the monotony of a course they expect to last 12 hours. (My only qualm might be their intention to wear matching penguin hats on race day.)

And there are other incentives for making racing a team sport.

For the past 30 years, the charity Oxfam has sponsored 100-kilometer events throughout the world for teams of four. I’ve participated in Hong Kong several times, and am monitoring this calendar of 2013 races in the hopes of doing a similar event in Spain, India or Australia. Participants also help fight poverty. Oxfam says that in 2012 more than 22,000 people collectively walked over 2.2 million kilometers, “the same distance as walking around the world 55 times, becoming great ambassadors for Oxfam’s work and aiming to raise over $18 million.”

That just scratches the surface of such events. Are there any team races â€" or other team sporting endeavors â€" you can recommend for the usually solo practitioner

What\'s in a Name, Hurricane

LONDON â€" Congratulations are in order for Blær Bjarkardóttir, the 15-year-old Icelandic girl who this week won the legal right to keep her given name in defiance of the despotic-sounding Icelandic Naming Committee.

Blær â€" its means “light breeze” in Icelandic â€" had sued authorities who refused to register her name because it was not on an approved list of 1,853 names that parents are allowed to give their female children.

The Reykjavík District Court found in her favor on Thursday, although it turned down her appeal for the equivalent of $4,000 in damages.

“I am very happy,” she said. “Finally, I’ll have the name ‘Blær’ in my passport.”

Iceland is among those states that keep a tight rein on namng conventions, in part to protect children from bearing a lifetime burden as the result of fanciful choices made in the first flush of parenthood.

How many Excels and Hurricanes are there who wish there had been an authoritarian Naming Committee around when they needed it

In Germany, as in Iceland, unisex names are banned, while a first given name must not negatively affect the well-being of the child.

Danish parents can pick from an approved list of 7,000 male and female names, and any unusual choice is likely to be rejected. That has mercifully spared intended victims from ending up as Pluto and Monkey, according to David K. Israel at the Mental Floss website.

A Swedish couple once attempted to strike a blow for parents’ rights by naming th! eir son Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced “Albin”). Their appeal to the law was rejected and instead they received a $750 fine for not registering the boy before his fifth birthday.

“What’s in a name” as Shakespeare’s Juliet asked. “That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Maybe. But would she have felt the same if her parents had called her Moxie CrimeFighter, like the daughter of Penn Jillette, the American magician

Celebrity children appear to be particularly vulnerable. Bob Geldof, the Irish music star, charity fundraiser and father of four daughters, has a Peaches, a Pixie, a Fifi Trixibelle and a Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.

American parents are allowed to name their children prett much what they like.

However, as Lisa Belkin wrote at the Motherlode parenting blog last year, Child Protective Services were called in when an Easton,Pa., couple ordered a birthday cake for their little Adolf Hitler Campbell, brother of JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Himmler Jeannie Campbell.

Annual lists of favorite names indicate most parents remain conservative in their choices. Lisa Belkin wrote that Emma, Isabella and Emily and Jacob, Michael and Ethan topped the U.S. list in 2011.

If you’re about to choose a name for your newborn, keep in mind a handy rule of thumb for naming cats: Never pick a name that you would be embarrassed to yell out of the window at midnight.

Let us know what you think: Should the state have a right to veto what a parent names a child Is the banning of outlandish names an act of mercy And if you have an unusual given name, is it a burden or! a benefi! t

What\'s in a Name, Hurricane

LONDON â€" Congratulations are in order for Blær Bjarkardóttir, the 15-year-old Icelandic girl who this week won the legal right to keep her given name in defiance of the despotic-sounding Icelandic Naming Committee.

Blær â€" its means “light breeze” in Icelandic â€" had sued authorities who refused to register her name because it was not on an approved list of 1,853 names that parents are allowed to give their female children.

The Reykjavík District Court found in her favor on Thursday, although it turned down her appeal for the equivalent of $4,000 in damages.

“I am very happy,” she said. “Finally, I’ll have the name ‘Blær’ in my passport.”

Iceland is among those states that keep a tight rein on namng conventions, in part to protect children from bearing a lifetime burden as the result of fanciful choices made in the first flush of parenthood.

How many Excels and Hurricanes are there who wish there had been an authoritarian Naming Committee around when they needed it

In Germany, as in Iceland, unisex names are banned, while a first given name must not negatively affect the well-being of the child.

Danish parents can pick from an approved list of 7,000 male and female names, and any unusual choice is likely to be rejected. That has mercifully spared intended victims from ending up as Pluto and Monkey, according to David K. Israel at the Mental Floss website.

A Swedish couple once attempted to strike a blow for parents’ rights by naming th! eir son Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced “Albin”). Their appeal to the law was rejected and instead they received a $750 fine for not registering the boy before his fifth birthday.

“What’s in a name” as Shakespeare’s Juliet asked. “That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.”

Maybe. But would she have felt the same if her parents had called her Moxie CrimeFighter, like the daughter of Penn Jillette, the American magician

Celebrity children appear to be particularly vulnerable. Bob Geldof, the Irish music star, charity fundraiser and father of four daughters, has a Peaches, a Pixie, a Fifi Trixibelle and a Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.

American parents are allowed to name their children prett much what they like.

However, as Lisa Belkin wrote at the Motherlode parenting blog last year, Child Protective Services were called in when an Easton,Pa., couple ordered a birthday cake for their little Adolf Hitler Campbell, brother of JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Himmler Jeannie Campbell.

Annual lists of favorite names indicate most parents remain conservative in their choices. Lisa Belkin wrote that Emma, Isabella and Emily and Jacob, Michael and Ethan topped the U.S. list in 2011.

If you’re about to choose a name for your newborn, keep in mind a handy rule of thumb for naming cats: Never pick a name that you would be embarrassed to yell out of the window at midnight.

Let us know what you think: Should the state have a right to veto what a parent names a child Is the banning of outlandish names an act of mercy And if you have an unusual given name, is it a burden or! a benefi! t

How Do You Prevent Food Waste

Between 1.2 billion and 2 billion tons of the 4 billion tons of food produced around the world every year never gets eaten, according to a new survey by a group of British engineers.

That means that up to half of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away.

“The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population â€" as well as those in hunger today,” said Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and one of the authors of the report in a statement.

Waste occurs at practically every step in food production: in the field, during transportation, while in storage, during distribution and in homes.

For example, as much asa third of all vegetables grown in Britain are never harvested because the they don’t look appealing enough for supermarkets to buy them, according to the report. (The authors also blamed supermarkets that promote large-quantity food purchases that often lead to wasted “expired” food at home.)

In developing countries, food waste is often the result of inadequate storage and distribution systems. In India, for instance, 21 million tons of wheat are wasted after being harvested but before they reach consumers.

The U.K.-based group of experts released the report, Global Food: Waste Not. Want Not., earlier this month. The institution says 60 to 100 percent more food could be saved by eliminating loss and waste.

In British homes alone, seven million tons of food, or 30 to 50 percent of the food purchased, is thrown out, according to the report.

Besides money, consumers are wasting clea! n water, labor and land.

Join the sustainability conversation.  What do you do to ensure that food is not thrown out

How Do You Prevent Food Waste

Between 1.2 billion and 2 billion tons of the 4 billion tons of food produced around the world every year never gets eaten, according to a new survey by a group of British engineers.

That means that up to half of all food produced for human consumption is thrown away.

“The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population â€" as well as those in hunger today,” said Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and one of the authors of the report in a statement.

Waste occurs at practically every step in food production: in the field, during transportation, while in storage, during distribution and in homes.

For example, as much asa third of all vegetables grown in Britain are never harvested because the they don’t look appealing enough for supermarkets to buy them, according to the report. (The authors also blamed supermarkets that promote large-quantity food purchases that often lead to wasted “expired” food at home.)

In developing countries, food waste is often the result of inadequate storage and distribution systems. In India, for instance, 21 million tons of wheat are wasted after being harvested but before they reach consumers.

The U.K.-based group of experts released the report, Global Food: Waste Not. Want Not., earlier this month. The institution says 60 to 100 percent more food could be saved by eliminating loss and waste.

In British homes alone, seven million tons of food, or 30 to 50 percent of the food purchased, is thrown out, according to the report.

Besides money, consumers are wasting clea! n water, labor and land.

Join the sustainability conversation.  What do you do to ensure that food is not thrown out

Depardieu vs. Beckham: Is France Gaining or Losing

Fair trade

French movie star Gérard Depardieu is threatening to flee France â€" for either Russia or Belgium â€" while soccer star David Beckham is coming to France to join the Paris Saint Germain soccer team.

Though the moves are unrelated, as far as we know, France is losing one millionaire and gaining another.

Mr. Depardieu, in an unusually publicly fight, broke with France’s Socialist government over its 75 percent tax rate for those earning more than €1 million a year, or about $1.3 million. After announcing he planned to renounce his French citizenship and move to Belgium, he ended up traveling to the Blak Sea resort of Sochi early in January to claim his Russian citizenship, offered by none other than Vladimir Putin.

Lovers of soccer and those who have been highly critical of Mr. Depardieu for abandoning his native France over taxes may celebrate the arrival of the English soccer star David Beckham. But even some soccer fans are less than enthused.

As the IHT’s soccer reporter, Rob Hughes, writes of Mr. Beckham: “Whatever physical speed he had, which was never outstanding, has diminished. He is unlikely, even in the comparatively less frenetic French league, to return as the winger he once was with Manchester United and Real Madrid.”

Moreover, Mr. Beckham’s contract with Paris St. Germain is only for five months. Rob reports that the Beckhams (David and wife, Victoria “Posh Spice”) and their four children are “committed to resettling in London.”

(The top income tax rate there is 50 percent.)

Which country do you think is getting the better en! d of these trades And why