Category Archives: Sports

North Korea Bizzare Olympics Stunt

09 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Ethics, Government, History, Honor, Mental Health, North Korea, Olympics, Politicians, Public Image, Public Relations, Sports

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Why is North Korea now best friends with South Korea? It doesn’t make sense. Their desire to be a part of the Olympics seems sudden and out of character for a regime that rejects any effort to be diplomatic. Since he took over North Korea in late 2011, Supreme Leader Kim Jung-un has not been the model of rational behavior so why now is he making the effort to reunite with his sworn enemy, South Korea?

The Olympic rings in Hoenggye town, South Korea

At the time I’m writing this it is about 9:00 pm PST on Thursday, 8 February. The opening ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics will begin in about six hours (8:00 pm KST in South Korea, 3:00 am PST.) My hope is that when I wake tomorrow morning that there will not be ‘Breaking News’ from the Olympics. I am not an expert on North Korea, but taking part in a public show of world unity is not what I would expect from Kim Jung-un.

A military parade the day before the opening ceremonies?

Mixed Messages, Being Loud and Clear?

It also seems suspicious that at the same time he is reaching out to South Korea, he also plays up his military with a massive public parade on the day prior to the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in South Korea. It cannot be a coincidence, as it was clearly intended to be an aggressive display.

Many intelligence agencies around the world closely watch North Korea 24/7/365 so it is unlikely that they could be planning a major strike against South Korea during the Olympic games. Satellites are most likely tracking all North Korea military movements and someone would be aware of any questionable actions. 

However, no one can track all actions by agents of an enemy country and North Korea doesn’t need to make a military strike to cause chaos at in South Korea.

Shadows of 1976?

The 1976 Summer Olympic games in Munich, Germany commanded international attention when the athletes from Israel were kidnapped, and eventually died in a rescue attempt. The incident changed the Olympics from a place of harmony and sportsmanship to an event of terror. That would seem to be more in character with the motives of Kim Jung-un than an intention of good will.

[COUNT TO 500:  498th Article in PAULx]

Successful Exercise Incentive Program Disguised As Smartphone Game

03 Saturday Dec 2016

Posted by in About Reno, Aging, Business, exercise, Generational, Green, Health, Information Technology, Internet, Public Image, Public Relations, Sports

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Exercise is evil. Almost anything we do to exercise is tedious, which is why many of us don’t do it. Newsweek® tells us that seven out of ten people in the United States are overweight. Several sources have suggested that we should walk about 10,000 steps a day, or 8 kilometers (about five miles) but most of us don’t.

However, all that changed in July of this year.

On 6 July, a new game application (App) was launched for use on smartphones. The App creates a real world Google-based map of the player’s location and uses incentives to encourage players, (also known as the trainers,) to walk. Incentives include fictional characters that must be collected. Some characters are common, some are less common, and some are exceedingly rare. Each character that is collected, or captured scores points for the trainer.

Users of new exercising app

Users of new exercising app

In addition to ‘hunting’ for characters, trainers can walk around public areas such as parks, campuses, and commercial shopping areas (like downtown areas and malls) to find locations, or stops, to free supplies used to capture, cure, and hatch more characters.

The hatching process also encourages walking. Trainers who collect character eggs at a stop must walk either two, five, or ten kilometers (1.2 mi., ≈3 mi., or ≈6 mi.) to hatch the egg. The greater the distance to hatch an egg, the rarer the character.

The game limits the speed of the trainer to a walking pace. Even the cruising speed of a bicycle is too fast for obtaining mileage (kilometerage?) credit towards an egg hatch, and most game functions shut down at anything approaching the speeds of motorized travel.

After it’s launch, the game became the most successful launch of any App in history with over 10 million people downloading the App in the first week. It was so successful that some were threatened by the amount of people exercising in public areas. 

Most people know the exercise App by the name Pokémon GO. Millions of people use it every day and many of them don’t realize that it is encouraging them to exercise.

Copyright 2016 – Paul Kiser

It’s Time To Drop the “C” From NCAA

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in About Reno, College, Education, Ethics, Government, Higher Education, Opinion, Pride, Public Image, Public Relations, Recreation, Sports, Taxes, Universities

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Image by Paul Kiser

College football uses its stadium about 8 days a year. It stands as a monument to Higher Education’s waste of resources

Athletes making more appearances in court than in class. Millions of dollars spent to recruit athletes, only to have them jump to a professional league before they graduate. Athletes that have paid staff minders to make sure they go to class, do their homework, and study. Money donated by alumni to only benefit major athletic programs. When will universities admit that big sports is not compatible with higher education?

Money for nothing. Donors giving to big sport programs

Money for nothing. Donors giving to big sport programs

The excuses are wearing thin. The NCAA tries to sell the idea during every televised college football or basketball game that the athletes on the field or court will become great scientists, doctors, and lawyers. Of course, the success stories are of athletes of every other sport.

Maybe a donor that will only give to athletics is not the person to associate with higher education?

Maybe a donor that will only give to athletics is not the person to associate with higher education?

The marriage between sports and colleges is a joke and it’s time for a divorce. The National Athletic Association (NCAA) should become the National Athletic Association (NAA.) We know college basketball and football athlete’s first, second, and third priorities are in pursuit of a big professional contract. To deny this is just an excuse to make us feel better when they sit in the back of the college classroom playing on their phones.

Make the professional leagues pay for bringing along young athletes and let higher education focus on education.

Management Study for God

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Business, Consulting, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Employee Retention, Ethics, Fiction, Generational, Government, History, Human Resources, Management Practices, Opinion, Politics, Public Image, Public Relations, Relationships, Religion, Sports, Tom Peters, Women

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WORLD MANAGEMENT STUDY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

On March 1, 2014, Kiser and Co. was retained by God to perform a study of the world management. After a thorough review of the processes and effectiveness of the current management practices on Earth we submit the following analysis and make the following recommendations.

ANALYSIS

FINDING ONE:  Ineffective World Leadership
Our researchers found the world leadership to be largely ineffective, self-promoting, and in some cases cruel and corrupt. In most advanced civilizations we would expect to see leadership to evolve into higher quality leaders as lessons learned from poor leadership would be applied to avoid repeating past failures. In fact, we have seen the reverse is true in many situations.

Key examples are Russia and North Korea. In both cases, the eventual failures of past leaders who used military force, prisons, politically controlled media, covert police enforcement, and corrupt practices have not deterred the current leadership of these countries to return to, or continue those practices. In addition, religious-based organizations seem to be among the worst offenders in promoting policies and practices that marginalize people and encourage hate and violence.

Immediate changes in world leadership will be required if management of the planet is to move forward.

FINDING TWO:  Lack of Vision
There seems to be a lack of concern for the future of the world. Consistently we saw an attitude that can best be described as “What’s in it for me?” Companies focus on next quarter’s profit, not long-term viability. Governments tend to lack any sensitivity toward the underprivileged, tending to blame them for their problems while passing laws that benefit the privileged at the expense of those who cannot afford the basic necessities to survive and prosper.

Again, immediate changes in world leadership will be required if management of the planet is to move forward.

FINDING THREE:  Obstruction of Progress
Many in leadership positions use propaganda and destructive techniques to prevent effective management. By focusing on meaningless, but highly controversial issues, some leaders have been able to keep discussions away from relevant issues and waste time through generating anger on topics among key population groups. The result is wild, pointless discussions on issues that cannot be resolved unless everyone works together. The key element in the obstructive leadership’s tactics is to announce that any compromise is a failure. In this way they create an “all or nothing” situation that effectively stops progress.  

Again, immediate changes in world leadership will be required if management of the planet is to move forward.

FINDING FOUR:  Inequality
We were shocked to discover the issues of inequality. The gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is vast and continues to grow. People are grouped and identified with certain expectations that determine their treatment by the world’s leadership. Slavery has become replaced with subtle tactics of discrimination that tend to become more bold over time. In many cases, the discriminatory practices have become accepted as normal.

Again, immediate changes in world leadership will be required if management of the planet is to move forward.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Despite the scope of the problem, the solution is surprisingly simple.

PROPOSAL 1:  Downsize the Male Gender
Among the four major findings, men were found to be the principal source of the problem. The current ineffective leadership group (Finding One) is overwhelmingly male dominated and they tend to be the people who demonstrate a lack of vision (Finding Two,) an inability to compromise (Finding Three,) and promote inequality (Finding Four.) Without men almost every current issue disappears without any further action.

Eliminating all males will also result in many benefits. The world population will be dramatically reduced, sexual harassment will virtually end, most, if not all, wars will end, and most pay equality issues will cease. Issue after issue becomes smaller, or disappears completely without men on the planet.

COUNTER FINDINGS
It is difficult to find negatives to this solution; however, here are some of the areas that may feel the impact of downsizing the male gender:

Reproduction — A lack of males would seem to create an issue in the propagation of the human species; however, there is believed to be enough frozen sperm available to continue reproduction on a smaller scale and the new males will be raised in a female-dominated environment, which may weed out the personality and behavior issues of the current male gender.

Male-dominated jobs — There are few jobs that truly require a male worker. Just because females have been excluded from many jobs doesn’t mean they can’t be trained to perform the work effectively.

Sports — Without males, most competitive sports will end. We cannot find a downside to this issue.

IMPLEMENTATION

It is believed that a 100% downsizing of the male gender may not be necessary for an effective change in world management. It might be more advisable to put all males on a 30-day Improvement Required Action. At the end of the 30-days those who have not demonstrated a clear reversal of  the findings of this study should be downsized. The remaining males could then be re-evaluated at 60 and 90 days to determine if the initial downsize resolved the problem or not. It is suggested that the changes required should be permanent as a condition of continued existence.

We do have recommendations about downsizing certain females; however, those may be handled on a case by case basis in a closed meeting with Human Resources.

Riding Reno: The Ladies of McCarran Boulevard

15 Wednesday Sep 2010

Posted by in About Reno, Branding, Lessons of Life, Passionate People, Public Relations, Random, Recreation, Rotary, Sports, Travel

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by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

This summer I started riding a bike around Reno, Nevada. Because I live close to McCarran Boulevard it is usually the primary feature of my route. McCarran is a four lane artery circling Reno; however, most of the 23-mile ring road has a wide shoulder and is a good option for a rider looking for a workout. Because it makes a circle a rider can complete the entire route, or it can be divided up into four sections that offer different challenges and levels of workout. Solely for my entertainment I have labeled each section with a female star’s name that reminds me of the section.

I should point out that I use a borrowed 15 year-old mountain bike, which creates significantly more resistance than a more contemporary road/touring bike, or even a hybrid or commuter bike…and yes, it is a pansy excuse. For a hardcore rider who loves hills, the terrain of McCarran will hardly seem challenging, but for me (and my borrowed mountain bike), the western sections of the route are more than enough of a cardiovascular workout.

I tend to NASCAR my route, so my description of riding McCarran Boulevard will be a route that is counterclockwise in each section of the circular route. The four sections are bisected by Interstate 80 and Virginia Street.

Shakira's first hill

SHAKIRA
Northwestern McCarran Boulevard
At 3.5 miles, the Shakira section is the shortest of the four McCarran quarters. It starts at North Virginia Street and after a slight downhill offers the second highest continuous elevation gain (175 feet in 1 mile) of the 23 mile route. That seems tame for most experienced riders on narrow tire touring bikes, but on a summer afternoon or evening the climb is into a stiff headwind. Combine the climb and wind with a hot day and a rider can lose a pound or two thanks to Shakira.

The first hill flattens out on top to a slight downhill followed by a second smaller hill with a 80-foot elevation gain that puts the rider at the top of  Shakira section. From here it is all downhill for over a mile to I-80; however, this is a heavily congested area with multiple shopping campuses on both sides of McCarran. While Shakira has nice broad shoulders, she also has a lot of cross traffic in the last mile.

Shakira has great shoulders

Shakira is ideal for a short cardio workout. For a quick ride I typically hit northwest McCarran and then continue into the next section of McCarran to 4th Street and return home on surface streets.

LADY GAGA
Southwestern McCarran Boulevard
This was the first section of McCarran I named…I was listening to a Lady Gaga song during the climb … and the name stuck. It is the longest and has the most challenging terrain of the four sections of McCarran.

From I-80 and west McCarran, Lady Gaga continues to drop in elevation from Shakira past 4th Street and down to the bridge that crosses the Truckee River. Once she lures you in with fun downhill she then begins a 575-foot elevation gain over the next 2.8 miles to the highest point on McCarran (5160 ft.) To add insult to injury, a significant portion of the climb turns the rider to the southwest and into the afternoon headwind. Workout junkies might fall in love with the challenge of Lady Gaga, but for others it might feel like a ‘Bad Romance’ as you are pedaling over a mile up the hill into the wind and round a left curve only to find there is still more hill ahead.

Lady Gaga takes you for a ride

Once at the top you can congratulate yourself because you have conquered the biggest hill in the circuit. The next phase of Lady Gaga is a 600-foot mostly downhill ride for over two miles. The downhill ends at Lake Street and the remainder of the 7.1 mile section is relatively flat as you head east to South Virginia Street; however by reaching the valley floor you also have returned to a high traffic area.

Lady Gaga has great ...uhm,..shoulders too!

The paved shoulder on the Lady Gaga section is excellent for most of the route; however, the division between bike route and car lane is ill-defined in the flat area between Lake and South Virginia Streets.  It is unfortunate that just as the car traffic becomes heavier the bike route designated area on the shoulder disappears.

Taken together, the total 10.6 miles of the Shakira and the Lady Gaga sections offer 1) a great workout, 2) great bike lanes, except as noted and, 3) great views of the Reno Valley (yes I’m aware no one refers to it as the ‘Reno Valley’.) I should note that most riders will pick up considerable speed on the downhills of these ladies and I have experienced strong side gusts on the downhill at the beginning of Lady Gaga. I have never been concerned that I would be pushed out into traffic; however, some caution in gusty winds is advised.

The narrow shoulders of the Keira Knightley section

KEIRA KNIGHTLEY
Southeastern McCarran Boulevard
Having covered the 10.6 miles of the western half of McCarran, one might easily dismiss the Keira Knightley portion of the McCarran experience; however. the 6.0 miles has a unique challenge, just not the kind bike riders normally seek. From South Virginia Street, the traffic is heavy due to the collection of shopping campuses and other commercial activity in area. Initially there is plenty of paved area for riders to avoid close encounters of the automobile kind; however, the paved shoulder keeps shrinking until there is little or no shoulder after you pass Longley Lane.

I would advise that the rider have some type of mirror to track the traffic behind them and, of course, a helmet is necessary in any riding environment. Most of Keira should be considered highly hazardous riding with shoulder conditions that are uncharacteristic of most of McCarran.

The other notable characteristic of the Keira section is its flatness. At Virginia Street the elevation is approximately 4450 feet and it drops over down to about 4400 feet at Longley Lane then stays within 15 feet of that elevation for the remainder of the section.

Like the real Taylor Swift, the final section of McCarran is a tame experience for most

TAYLOR SWIFT
Northeastern McCarran Boulevard
 I have named the last section of McCarran, Taylor Swift. It is a 6.3 mile section that has some narrow shoulders at the beginning and a few minor elevation changes in the last half of the section. Overall the Taylor section has about a 250 foot rise but it levels off for the last mile before North Virginia Street. Taylor is a high traffic area for the first mile or so, but once past Prater Way the surrounding area becomes primarily residential. The other area of note is near the I-580 (US 395) and North McCarran interchange. In addition to the activity around the on/off ramps of I-580, there is major commercial activity for almost a mile on either side.

Like the Shakira section, the elevation gain occurs when the rider is facing west, which is the direction the wind comes from in the afternoon and evening. If you start your ride at the beginning of the Shakira section then you might discover that the last few miles on the 23-mile ride will remove any guilt you might have for the nice level ride of the Keira and first half of Taylor sections.

I have done the ride in two hours of ride time, but I would allow for two and half hours. For hardcore riders/racers it is probably an hour and a half ride or less. I like Shakira, Lady Gaga, Keira, and Taylor because they offer fewer intersections than normal city streets and a great riding area for most of the route. If you find yourself in Reno looking for a nice ride with views of the city, you can’t go wrong with the Ladies of McCarran; however, the best views, and the best workout will be with Shakira and Lady Gaga….is that a surprise to anyone?

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Foul Play: FIFA shows what less regulation offers to business

29 Tuesday Jun 2010

Posted by in Ethics, Government Regulation, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Public Relations, Random, Rotary, Sports

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by Paul Kiser
USA PDT  [Twitter: ] [Facebook] [LinkedIn] [Skype:kiserrotary or 775.624.5679]

Paul Kiser

Up until today the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (better known as FIFA) believed in fate, not fair play. In FIFA soccer (better known as football) four referees are charged with monitoring non-stop activity on a ‘pitch’ that is a larger field than the USA’s National Football League (better known as the NFL) The position of FIFA has been that mistakes have been ‘part of the game,’ but today they announced that they would study the problem….which begs the question, do they know what the problem is?

Compare FIFA officiating to that of the NFL where seven referees focus on plays that take place in short time segments of action (a typical play takes 15-seconds or less.) In addition, each play is usually contained in a small area of the field. The result is that NFL referees are so reliable that they rarely make a mistake…but if they do they are backed up by instant replay.

Occasionally, the losing team will say that an NFL referee cost them the game, but in reality few have a legitimate argument to base the outcome on anything other than the players on the field and the leadership on the sideline. Officiating in the NFL creates an environment of fair play for both teams, that’s the sole reason for their existence.

FIFA's View of Sports Officiating

In South Africa the 2010 FIFA World Cup is being played and not only are the referee’s making mistakes, they are determining the outcomes. But up until today, FIFA liked it that way. Somehow the sense of fair play is optional under FIFA officiating and the skills and dedication of the players is secondary to keeping the matches subject to the whims and errors of the non-players on the field. The situation is so bad that this year’s winner of the World Cup will likely owe a debt of gratitude to some FIFA ref that helped them win a game in the ‘knockout’ rounds. No team can fully claim credit of superior gamesmanship because of the excessive, gross errors made by the referees. I do not fault the referees, because four people cannot possibly track all the action on the field for 93 continuous minutes (90 minutes? Who are they kidding?) In FIFA, foul play reigns supreme because of a lack of regulation.

A Lesson For Business
This is a good lesson for those who preach that less regulation is good for business. We have seen what happens when government is stripped back to allow business to do as they will to their customers and the market. Too little regulation leads to foul play. It always has, always does, and always will. Greed is bad, but that is what reigns supreme in unregulated business. Business ethics become an unacceptable expense in unregulated business. Good business people are forced to abandon their ethics or get out of the industry in unregulated business environment because of their competitors who sacrifice fair play in order to win at all costs. Whether it is an exploding oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, a lead-based paint on a child’s toy, or unsustainable lending practices that will eventually destroy an economy, the cause is a lack of government oversight.

Whenever I say this to one of my conservative acquaintances they immediately quote me some instance that they heard from some source of an example of government abusing power. Yes, there are bad inspectors and absurd rules and laws that increase the cost of doing business, but I’ll take an occasional problem with government oversight to the perversion that unethical business people always devolve into when government is not there to protect us from greed. Regulated business is fair play for all and that’s what has made American business great.

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