????? Ok, I need everyone to read this story and tell me if there is some detail that they must be leaving out for some reason. Emphasis at the end is mine. Please comment with your ideas:

TOKYO - Police say 15 people have been killed in a pre-dawn fire at a building in Osaka in western Japan.

A police spokesman says the fire broke out early Wednesday in a video shop located on the first floor of the seven-story building. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the 3 a.m. blaze.

Kyodo says the victims were male customers of the shop and were found in rooms equipped with a TV set to view the videos.

  ¶ 5:39 PM 2 Comments

  Today I Set a New Personal Record 40 laps (3000 feet) in 19:41. I beat my previous record by 1:02, set on May 7th, my last swim before I left for China.

I used a technique I read in Runner's World last week whereby I started swimming very slowly and then gradually picked up pace, increasing speed all the way to the end. In the past, I have started slowly, but achieved top speed relatively early in the swim, by lap 5 perhaps. This always caused me to struggle through the second 20 laps. I did not reach top speed today until perhaps lap 30. It really made all the difference, and I was able to hack off more than 5% of my time.

My goal is to swim a mile in 34 minutes by December.

I also biked a new high last week: 72 miles. This was even with having taken Saturday off. I am averaging 1 mph faster as well.

I have neglected running for some time now because it is so time consuming. I decided to start doing sprints once or twice a week to build strength, and then do endurance runs on the weekends.  ¶ 3:17 PM 2 Comments

  Another Half Step Forward I tend to read books of quotes when I'm in trying times or in a conscious period of self-discovery as I am today. Advice columns often offer ambiguous solutions to petty difficulties, and no one is made the better, but a single quote of even moderate wisdom can change one's perspective on their problem, and therefore the way they feel about it, the way they think about it, and the way the approach the problem henceforth. It is the difference between chronic distress and the glory of steadfast resolve. Men and women are empowered when guided to a solution of their own formulation seeded by the wisdom of those who came before them, and insulted by those who hand them a solution, whose application is then a new and more perplexing problem. When dealing with our friends and colleagues, we should consider the best way to inspire them to their own ends, not to shove a means down their throat.

Luckily, my brother gave me several books of quotes distributed in his firm small enough to keep in my bag at all times. A few are helpful to me in the wake of my foolish behavior this past week:

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing." --Helen Keller

Speaks directly to my situation, but in the context of another, I probably would have done myself a favor putting sunscreen on sooner than I did yesterday at the Dragonboat Races.

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation." -- George Washington

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies." -- Aristotle

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." -- Margaret Thatcher  ¶ 11:17 AM 2 Comments

  CERN This is too great not to post. Be sure to read the comments, people are freakin' out:

  ¶ 12:13 AM 0 Comments