The HomeTeamNS REAL Run returned to Sentosa island on Saturday after six years
SINGAPORE: Labelled as Singapore's toughest 10-kilometre race in 2013, the HomeTeamNS REAL Run finally returned to Sentosa island on Saturday after six years.
This year's race was held at the more scenic Sentosa island after being staged in Changi for the past six editions.
A total of 6,000 participants competed at the event and 5,500 of them negotiated a 10-kilometre route criss-crossed between regular tarmac, gravel and beach sand.
The Kenyans swept the top spots in both the Men's and Women's Open categories.
In the Men's Open, Paul Kimani came in first with a time of 35 minutes and 17 seconds, while Jackline Muriuki clocked 40 minutes and 20 seconds to win the Women's Open.
- CNA/fa
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Sunday, May 26, 2013
The Straits Times Run in the Park: Scenic run for readers along Punggol, Sengkang river
By Priscilla Kham
Published on May 15, 2013 6:32 PM
The Straits Times Run in the Park: Scenic run for readers along Punggol, Sengkang river:
Readers will get a chance to get close to nature at the inaugural The Straits Times' Run in the Park on Aug 25.
The route for the event covers the scenic waterway of the North Eastern Riverine Loop which spans the natural coastline of Punggol Beach, and the river banks of Punggol and Sengkang. In what is the biggest run ever along this corridor, participants will not only get to close to lush greenery but they can expect to catch a glimpse of colourful waterside birds.
Said editor of The Straits Times, Mr Warren Fernandez: "Many of our readers love to get outdoors and have fun while keeping fit. They read us for the latest news and trends on just how to do that, so we have decided to take them to this unique spot on the park connector network for a run with a difference."
"We will also be with our runners every step of the way as they prepare for the run, in our coverage in the run-up to the event, in our Home pages and the Mind Your Body pages."
The run, which is part of the Straits Times Appreciates Readers (STAR) series to actively engage its readers and the community, is being held in collaboration with the National Parks Board which is commemorating "50 Years of Greening Singapore".
There are three runs available for the participants: a 5km fun run, 10km competitive run and a 15km competitive run. The registration fee for competitive runners is $55, while the registration fee for the fun run is $46. Those who sign up as a group of four pay $50 and $42 each respectively for the competitive and fun run.
For their registration fee, participants will receive a ticket to the Resorts World Sentosa's S.E.A Aquarium worth $33, a New Balance t-shirt worth $47 and other attractive goodies.
Registration begins early June and can be done online, through readers' mobile devices and at upcoming roadshows for the event.
Published on May 15, 2013 6:32 PM
The Straits Times Run in the Park: Scenic run for readers along Punggol, Sengkang river:
Readers will get a chance to get close to nature at the inaugural The Straits Times' Run in the Park on Aug 25.
The route for the event covers the scenic waterway of the North Eastern Riverine Loop which spans the natural coastline of Punggol Beach, and the river banks of Punggol and Sengkang. In what is the biggest run ever along this corridor, participants will not only get to close to lush greenery but they can expect to catch a glimpse of colourful waterside birds.
Said editor of The Straits Times, Mr Warren Fernandez: "Many of our readers love to get outdoors and have fun while keeping fit. They read us for the latest news and trends on just how to do that, so we have decided to take them to this unique spot on the park connector network for a run with a difference."
"We will also be with our runners every step of the way as they prepare for the run, in our coverage in the run-up to the event, in our Home pages and the Mind Your Body pages."
The run, which is part of the Straits Times Appreciates Readers (STAR) series to actively engage its readers and the community, is being held in collaboration with the National Parks Board which is commemorating "50 Years of Greening Singapore".
There are three runs available for the participants: a 5km fun run, 10km competitive run and a 15km competitive run. The registration fee for competitive runners is $55, while the registration fee for the fun run is $46. Those who sign up as a group of four pay $50 and $42 each respectively for the competitive and fun run.
For their registration fee, participants will receive a ticket to the Resorts World Sentosa's S.E.A Aquarium worth $33, a New Balance t-shirt worth $47 and other attractive goodies.
Registration begins early June and can be done online, through readers' mobile devices and at upcoming roadshows for the event.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Bedok's Berlin Wall to go back to US owners
Bedok's Berlin Wall to go back to US owners: Housed in a glass, steel and concrete facility at Bedok Reservoir Park, the 5m-long section of the Berlin Wall features the spray-painted artwork of German artist Dennis Kaun, called Kings Of Freedom.
By Lisabel Ting
The Straits Times
Apr 19, 2013
FOUR panels of the historic Berlin Wall on display in Bedok Reservoir Park will be returned to their owners by the end of this year.
The 5m-long section of the wall, which was unveiled here in January 2010 to much fanfare, is on indefinite loan from American oil industry veteran Robert Hefner III, 78, and his Singapore- born wife MeiLi.
The couple plan to move the wall back to one of their properties in the United States, former foreign minister George Yeo revealed in an e-mail interview with The Straits Times.
Mr Yeo is a friend of the Hefners and former MP for Bedok Reservoir-Punggol.
The National Parks Board also confirmed the return of the wall panels.
Mr Yeo said: "When the Hefners told me some months ago that they wanted the wall back, I expressed sadness and the strong hope that they would keep it at Bedok Reservoir for a while longer. But it is a decision they have taken which I have to respect."
The couple, who are art collectors, acquired the 4m-high, 60cm-thick segments in 1990 - a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall - for an undisclosed amount.
Spray-painted on the concrete slabs are two kings, one smiling and one looking sad.
Titled Kings Of Freedom, the painting is the work of German artist Dennis Kaun.
The Hefners originally wanted to exhibit the pieces with their collection of Chinese oil paintings at the National Museum of Singapore in September 2008, but it proved logistically impractical to transport the pieces here and back to their original location in Oklahoma City a month later.
Mr Yeo, who is now based in Hong Kong as chairman of Kerry Logistics Network, had offered to house the pieces in Bedok Reservoir Park, then part of his constituency.
The former minister has a keen interest in the arts and history, having headed the Information and the Arts Ministry for almost a decade.
He is also a patron of Lasalle College of the Arts, and adviser to the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.
Other luminaries who were involved in bringing the wall sections to Singapore include veteran businesswoman Jennie Chua, who chaired the fund-raising committee for the project.
The pieces are housed in a specially-constructed $2 million glass, steel and concrete facility at the park. This facility will stay; a spokesman for the fund-raising team said it is in discussions with NParks to fill the enclosure.
Regulars of the park said they would be sad to see the wall go.
"I feel like it's a waste, because the wall is quite colourful and has graffiti on it," said Mr Chiam Wee Leong, 29, who owns WaWaWa Bistro, a German eatery located next to the wall. "Without it, this park would just be like any other."
Mr Jonathan Lim, 25, a resident of Bedok, agreed. Said the operations officer: "It's important that history isn't forgotten, but shared with the young."
The spokesman for the fund-raising team said one option being explored is for Kaun to work with Singapore artists to create an artwork for the enclosure.
Mr Yeo is happy that the facility will not go to waste.
He said: "I'm glad that NParks is planning to use the enclosure for some other object of interest so that the Kings Of Freedom facility will continue to be interesting and inspiring to Singaporeans, young and old."
By Lisabel Ting
The Straits Times
Apr 19, 2013
FOUR panels of the historic Berlin Wall on display in Bedok Reservoir Park will be returned to their owners by the end of this year.
The 5m-long section of the wall, which was unveiled here in January 2010 to much fanfare, is on indefinite loan from American oil industry veteran Robert Hefner III, 78, and his Singapore- born wife MeiLi.
The couple plan to move the wall back to one of their properties in the United States, former foreign minister George Yeo revealed in an e-mail interview with The Straits Times.
Mr Yeo is a friend of the Hefners and former MP for Bedok Reservoir-Punggol.
The National Parks Board also confirmed the return of the wall panels.
Mr Yeo said: "When the Hefners told me some months ago that they wanted the wall back, I expressed sadness and the strong hope that they would keep it at Bedok Reservoir for a while longer. But it is a decision they have taken which I have to respect."
The couple, who are art collectors, acquired the 4m-high, 60cm-thick segments in 1990 - a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall - for an undisclosed amount.
Spray-painted on the concrete slabs are two kings, one smiling and one looking sad.
Titled Kings Of Freedom, the painting is the work of German artist Dennis Kaun.
The Hefners originally wanted to exhibit the pieces with their collection of Chinese oil paintings at the National Museum of Singapore in September 2008, but it proved logistically impractical to transport the pieces here and back to their original location in Oklahoma City a month later.
Mr Yeo, who is now based in Hong Kong as chairman of Kerry Logistics Network, had offered to house the pieces in Bedok Reservoir Park, then part of his constituency.
The former minister has a keen interest in the arts and history, having headed the Information and the Arts Ministry for almost a decade.
He is also a patron of Lasalle College of the Arts, and adviser to the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall.
Other luminaries who were involved in bringing the wall sections to Singapore include veteran businesswoman Jennie Chua, who chaired the fund-raising committee for the project.
The pieces are housed in a specially-constructed $2 million glass, steel and concrete facility at the park. This facility will stay; a spokesman for the fund-raising team said it is in discussions with NParks to fill the enclosure.
Regulars of the park said they would be sad to see the wall go.
"I feel like it's a waste, because the wall is quite colourful and has graffiti on it," said Mr Chiam Wee Leong, 29, who owns WaWaWa Bistro, a German eatery located next to the wall. "Without it, this park would just be like any other."
Mr Jonathan Lim, 25, a resident of Bedok, agreed. Said the operations officer: "It's important that history isn't forgotten, but shared with the young."
The spokesman for the fund-raising team said one option being explored is for Kaun to work with Singapore artists to create an artwork for the enclosure.
Mr Yeo is happy that the facility will not go to waste.
He said: "I'm glad that NParks is planning to use the enclosure for some other object of interest so that the Kings Of Freedom facility will continue to be interesting and inspiring to Singaporeans, young and old."
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Google backtracks on Chinese anti-censorship feature (Wired UK)
Google backtracks on Chinese anti-censorship feature (Wired UK):
Google appears to be backtracking on its once unshakeable anti-censorship stance, after removing a feature from its Chinese site designed to help users avoid getting cut off from the internet.
The feature -- which flagged up a warning message whenever a user began typing a censored word, then redirected them to a help page that explained how to avoid being cut off from the web -- appears to have been disabled some time between 5 and 8 December 2012, reports GreatFire.org.
The anti-censorship feature only came into being in June 2012, at which time it was almost immediately blocked by China. Google retaliated by embedding the function into the html of its start page, thus rendering it permanent, bar a total Google block. And on 9 November 2012, that's just what the Chinese authorities did. The site was blocked for around 24 hours and censorship of Gmail was stepped up considerably thereafter.
"It may have been an instance of the government showing off its power to Google and using it as a leverage in their negotiations," speculates GreatFire.org. "In the end, Google may have decided that providing a restricted version of Google Search and a slow but usable Gmail to Chinese users is much better than being completely cut off."
Google launched Google.cn back in 2006 and has been exchanging threats with the Chinese authorities ever since. The search engine attempted to tread a fine line between keeping the authorities and its users happy, but by 2010 tensions had escalated exponentially. Google announced it would no longer censor its search results in China, but instead redirect traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong site, following a cyber attack that it claimed originated in China.
At the time, Sergey Brin commented that Google would continue in its aim to preserve "the principles of the openness and freedom of information on the internet". Meanwhile, however, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong asserted that Google should step in line with the law or "pay the consequences".
"What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked," she said at the time.
Google might appear to be selectively abiding by the web's freedom of information motto, but it has done more than some in challenging China's stranglehold on internet freedoms.
The actions do, however, echo Brin's despondence with the situation as relayed to the Guardian in April 2012. He said that somewhere between the rampant censorship and ongoing global cyberwars, he had been proven wrong in his belief that no country could restrict the internet for too long. "I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle," he said.
It may just be that Google has also come to the realisation that with its meagre five percent marketshare in China -- compared to competitor Baidu's 74 percent -- it will not be able to achieve much when it comes to making a dent in the country's censorship policies, nor the public's access to information. You have to be in the game to win it, so perhaps the search giant is opting to shelve its futile cat and mouse game with China for a while, and play ball instead.
This could make a lot of sense, particularly since some commentators view Google's anti-censorship as nothing more than a self-congratulatory course of action that harms usability more than improving it.
When news first emerged about the feature, sociologist Tricia Wang commented: "I don't see how this actually reaches their goal. First it only antagonises the government more, and thereby could make it even harder for the existing user base to access Google. So it could be counterproductive. Second, it's targeting people who are already their existing users, so they're preaching to the preachers."
Essentially, no one is going to stick with your service if it keeps getting them booted off the internet or bothering them with pop-ups telling them things they already know. Competitors don't come with these irritations, because they've already allowed themselves to be censored -- that might not be in-keeping with Google's morals, but it makes for a far better user experience. When Wired.co.uk spoke to a few Chinese residents about the disabled Google feature, they were not even aware of it because they used VPNs, demonstrating Google might not be taking into account just how savvy its users are at all.
Google's apparent appeasement of the Chinese authorities might also have something to do with its potential new deal with Chinese search engine Qihoo. The latter launched 16 August 2012, and by early December -- around about the same time Google apparently disabled its anti-censorship feature -- reports emerged that the new player in town had begun eating into Google's market share. By late December, rumours began circulating that the two would join forces to take on dominant Baidu, and on 4 January that deal was reportedly near completion. The news caused ABR Investment Strategy to alter its 2013 search revenue estimates substantially from $62 million to $90 million (£39 million to £54 million). If Google wanted to secure that deal and ensure the permanence of any long-term strategy at all, it probably assumed it should tow the line -- at least for a little while.
Wired.co.uk contacted Google for comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.
Google appears to be backtracking on its once unshakeable anti-censorship stance, after removing a feature from its Chinese site designed to help users avoid getting cut off from the internet.
The feature -- which flagged up a warning message whenever a user began typing a censored word, then redirected them to a help page that explained how to avoid being cut off from the web -- appears to have been disabled some time between 5 and 8 December 2012, reports GreatFire.org.
The anti-censorship feature only came into being in June 2012, at which time it was almost immediately blocked by China. Google retaliated by embedding the function into the html of its start page, thus rendering it permanent, bar a total Google block. And on 9 November 2012, that's just what the Chinese authorities did. The site was blocked for around 24 hours and censorship of Gmail was stepped up considerably thereafter.
"It may have been an instance of the government showing off its power to Google and using it as a leverage in their negotiations," speculates GreatFire.org. "In the end, Google may have decided that providing a restricted version of Google Search and a slow but usable Gmail to Chinese users is much better than being completely cut off."
Google launched Google.cn back in 2006 and has been exchanging threats with the Chinese authorities ever since. The search engine attempted to tread a fine line between keeping the authorities and its users happy, but by 2010 tensions had escalated exponentially. Google announced it would no longer censor its search results in China, but instead redirect traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong site, following a cyber attack that it claimed originated in China.
At the time, Sergey Brin commented that Google would continue in its aim to preserve "the principles of the openness and freedom of information on the internet". Meanwhile, however, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong asserted that Google should step in line with the law or "pay the consequences".
"What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked," she said at the time.
Google might appear to be selectively abiding by the web's freedom of information motto, but it has done more than some in challenging China's stranglehold on internet freedoms.
The actions do, however, echo Brin's despondence with the situation as relayed to the Guardian in April 2012. He said that somewhere between the rampant censorship and ongoing global cyberwars, he had been proven wrong in his belief that no country could restrict the internet for too long. "I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle," he said.
It may just be that Google has also come to the realisation that with its meagre five percent marketshare in China -- compared to competitor Baidu's 74 percent -- it will not be able to achieve much when it comes to making a dent in the country's censorship policies, nor the public's access to information. You have to be in the game to win it, so perhaps the search giant is opting to shelve its futile cat and mouse game with China for a while, and play ball instead.
This could make a lot of sense, particularly since some commentators view Google's anti-censorship as nothing more than a self-congratulatory course of action that harms usability more than improving it.
When news first emerged about the feature, sociologist Tricia Wang commented: "I don't see how this actually reaches their goal. First it only antagonises the government more, and thereby could make it even harder for the existing user base to access Google. So it could be counterproductive. Second, it's targeting people who are already their existing users, so they're preaching to the preachers."
Essentially, no one is going to stick with your service if it keeps getting them booted off the internet or bothering them with pop-ups telling them things they already know. Competitors don't come with these irritations, because they've already allowed themselves to be censored -- that might not be in-keeping with Google's morals, but it makes for a far better user experience. When Wired.co.uk spoke to a few Chinese residents about the disabled Google feature, they were not even aware of it because they used VPNs, demonstrating Google might not be taking into account just how savvy its users are at all.
Google's apparent appeasement of the Chinese authorities might also have something to do with its potential new deal with Chinese search engine Qihoo. The latter launched 16 August 2012, and by early December -- around about the same time Google apparently disabled its anti-censorship feature -- reports emerged that the new player in town had begun eating into Google's market share. By late December, rumours began circulating that the two would join forces to take on dominant Baidu, and on 4 January that deal was reportedly near completion. The news caused ABR Investment Strategy to alter its 2013 search revenue estimates substantially from $62 million to $90 million (£39 million to £54 million). If Google wanted to secure that deal and ensure the permanence of any long-term strategy at all, it probably assumed it should tow the line -- at least for a little while.
Wired.co.uk contacted Google for comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.
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