Blowing the old record out of the water with the hugest of cannonball leaps, South Africans Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel successfully set a new Drakensberg Grand Traverse speed record of 41 hours and 49 minutes.
Ryno Griesel himself and Cobus van Zyl held the previous record of 60 hours, 29 minutes, and 30 seconds which the pair set in April 2010 and with an adventure-racing, speed-hiking approach over the famous Drakensberg Escarpment, a seemingly unending buttress of rock reaching a high point of 3,482 meters/11,423 feet and spanning the border between South Africa and Lesotho.
To set their record, Ryan and Ryno passed all these checkpoints, starting at the Sentinel car park and ending at Bushman's Nek Border Post. Finally, Ryan and Ryno traveled in the self-supported style that's been used during previous record attempts. GPS units and maps are permitted under the DGT gentleman/woman's agreement.
iRunFar: Congratulations to the both of you.
Ryan Sandes and Ryno Griesel: Thanks. Thanks very much.
iRunFar: It's just been 15 hours since you've finished. How are you both feeling this morning? What hurts? What feels good?
Griesel: I think our feet are quite broken because of the terrain. Yeah, my calves are quite sore from the downhill running. Ryan doesn't seem to hurt too much. He's not human.
Sandes: My feet are also completely bashed up, especially from the final descents were really rocky and technical. I've got loads of hotspots on my feet. My ankles also took quite a beating. The terrain is so rugged and varied. You're always running on grass tufts and rocks are always moving and are super sharp. Yeah, I think both our feet don't look too pretty this morning.
iRunFar: I know that there were a fair number of water crossings. What's the skin situation on your feet today?
Sandes: There are loads of water crossings. You probably cross a river every three to four kilometers along the route. Because there has been so much rain up here, some of the water crossings were quite deep. I think both our feet, yeah, I've got some pretty big hot spots. Actually, Kelvin Trautman took a photo of my feet yesterday when I took my shoes off. They look like when you get the wrinkly feet from having your feet in the water for a long time but a million times worse.
iRunFar: You were about five hours away from trench foot?
Sandes: Yeah, pretty much. I'd imagine we do have trench feet. They're not looking too healthy.
iRunFar: Last night did you guys sleep like babies or did you have nightmares about being out there still?
Griesel: I just had a big slab of chocolate before I climbed into bed, and I slept like a baby. It was awesome to be finished.
iRunFar: That's great. I want to start with a little bit of background on you, Ryno. Most people who read this will be pretty familiar with Ryan, but not you, Ryno. You've done a bunch of trail running but also a bunch of adventure racing. Can you tell us about yourself?
Griesel: My background is mainly adventure racing. I've raced overseas for the last 10 years or so. That's pretty much my preference of endurance sport. Trail running has always just been kind of an outflow from adventure racing. But also, I've been into climbing mountains and mountaineering in general most of my life. I figured out early in my life that if you can run from one climbing route to another then you have more time to play during the day. That's kind of how trail running developed for me—being a climber and moving in the mountains. The Drakensberg became a passion for me over the last couple of years.
iRunFar: When I Google you and your race results, you seem to be drawn toward the really long adventure races—700k, 900k. You must like to suffer?
Griesel: I think it's by default. I'm not that fast. I have to go far to be competitive. I'm not a sprinter. I generally have a fairly strong head and I enjoy pushing my limits, and seeing how far I can go. I've always chosen the endurance side purely because I don't have that much speed.
iRunFar: This was a short outing for you at just 200k?
Griesel: In comparison to adventure racing, but the big difference is never in adventure racing do you spent 200k on your feet. You typically are more varied in the disciplines. That's what made this thing quite tough. Your hiking legs are very seldom over 40 hours. The only hiking legs I've done in adventure racing over 40 hours would be in Patagonia. We hiked for four and a half days for one leg.
iRunFar: Ryno, you are the current record holder and previous record holder, too. The press release that came out a couple of hours ago said that the two of you hatched your plan for this new record attempt two years ago. How did the plan come about?
Griesel: Obviously Ryan has always been a hero of mine and I've always followed his progress. Independently I've spoken to some people about wanting to push the record a little bit further, people with which Ryan also had contact. We met up and said, 'Let's see if we can make this happen.' A project of this magnitude requires that you can't just jump in and do it. We'd been talking about it for quite awhile, but I'd say the last eight months we've been working at it as our main focus.
iRunFar: The two of you, do you have background together prior to this from the endurance-racing community there? How did you get to know each other?
Sandes: Yeah, I've known Ryno and seen his achievements through adventure racing and Ryno is in the Salomon South Africa team. I've gotten to know him a bit through that. I think basically we formed a much stronger bond and a much stronger friendship through doing this traverse together. Like Ryno said, the past eight months since October of last year really focused on doing the attempt. I've come out here to do a lot of recces as well. For me, I thought it was quite important to do my homework. Ryno knows the Drakensberg mountains really well and probably spends about every second weekend here, probably one weekend a month. He knows these mountains really well. I wanted to make sure I also got to familiarize myself with these mountains and pay my school fees, in a way, and make sure I knew the route—that I wasn't just rocking up here and trying to run from point A to B with limited experience.
iRunFar: That seems like one of the crucial differences between this and an ultra race. Most ultras are much more straightforward than this.
Sandes: Yeah, obviously there are no markings on the mountain. You don't follow any trails. Now and again you're running on cattle trails, but the cattle trails can lead to wherever. You're following a GPS track a lot. Ryno knows the mountains really well. We really focused on getting the most efficient GPS track. The route can vary slightly depending on what's happened with the rivers and what areas are overgrown or not. It's definitely not straightforward. It's taken a lot of homework.
I think a massive thank you also to Cobus van Zyl, the previous record holder with Ryno. He's put in a lot of effort to help us get the most efficient track. I think even just going on the GPS track, even yesterday with about eight k's to go, it was really tricky getting off the mountain. There are so many different routes you can take. Getting cliffed in—there were some guys who hiked in a few weeks ago and actually got cliffed in on the mountain and had to spend an extra night on the mountain with only about four k's to go. It's really tricky. You've definitely got to do your homework and know the routes 100%.
iRunFar: To be those guys would be heartbreaking. You can probably see the trailhead and have to bivy out.
Sandes: Yeah, for sure. It was going through my head a little bit yesterday afternoon when we were double checking the trail. The trail at that point was quite overgrown. I think both Ryno and I for a couple of minutes were a little bit worried. The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck on the mountain for an extra night.
iRunFar: I want to ask you about your personality match-up. It's a commitment to go out in the wilderness with another dude for a couple of days in addition to all the planning you had ahead of time. How did you realize that you would be good partners?
Griesel: I've always followed Ryan's achievements. But to get to know him as a person—Ryan is just so easy going and humble, super strong. So from the word 'go,' I knew I would be 100% safe with him in the mountains. We've gelled really well together. I think what helps is that we both did this as a personal journey. We didn't really have this record as the main focus. We wanted to experience the mountains together and put the record in the back of our heads. Otherwise, it's just another race, which obviously makes things more difficult. The fact that we both had similar goals made it easier.
Sandes: I think Ryno's just being nice. He has a lot more experience than me in the mountains. My navigation is pretty pathetic. It's getting better. But even with following the GPS, I just follow the lines. Ryno can read a map really well. He knows how to read contours and is just so good at reading maps. In that sense, Ryno definitely helped a lot. We're both pretty focused. As Ryno said, we both had the same intention and goals in mind. I think generally we're both quiet people. We're not one of those people who have to be chatting the whole way. We really did gel quite well together during the attempt.
iRunFar: It's interesting to hear you say that you treated this as a personal journey. From the outside looking in, Red Bull hyped it as a record attempt. You say that from the inside looking out, you didn't necessarily treat it like that.
Sandes: Yeah, even in a race, I find I generally don't run as well if I'm thinking about the times as if I'm there for the experience. But I think for both of us, just being in the Drakensberg mountains—the biggest mountain range in South Africa—just to be able to traverse it from one side to the other, that was kind of the main goal for me. In 50 years' time, I'm not going to be worried that I ran the Drakensberg Traverse in however many hours. I think it's more that I traversed the Drakensberg mountains on foot that will probably be the biggest thing for me and I'm pretty sure for Ryno, too.
iRunFar: Can you place these mountains in South African outdoor culture for me? I get the sense that doing this traverse or part of the traverse is a bucket-list-type item for people with backcountry experience in South Africa. Is that how it is?
Griesel: The biggest thing about the Drakensberg is, first, that it's very remote. There is no road that leads in and around the mountains. The accessibility to the Drakensberg is that there are very specific spots you can get to the mountains. The drive around to the next spot is three to four hours. A lot of the foot of the mountain is occupied by rural communities. From previous history and how South Africa was divided up, a lot of the local communities and the black people, they have the biggest towns and cities at the foot of the mountain. So there are not roads. It's quite inaccessible.
Also, once you're on top of the mountain, if you decide that you don't want to continue and you want to get down, it's between six and 10 hours of hiking out. So the reality is different from European mountains, for instance, that there are no roads over the top and there are no easy exits. It's kind of this untouchable, iconic route to do because it takes a lot of commitment especially the way we did it where we took minimum gear. You have to have the experience in the mountains. It's kind of this elusive, very difficult to access mountain. That's what's created the awareness and the hype behind it, I guess.
iRunFar: Ryno, it seems like you have quite a defined relationship with that mountain range. You have done a bunch of time out in it. You were the previous traverse record holder. It was worth it to you to go through 60 hours of suffering a few years ago and then another 40 this time. What is it about the mountain range that keeps drawing you back? Is it that remoteness factor?
Griesel: Yeah, I think that, firstly, I'm super passionate about mountains in general. I just love spending time in the mountains and trying to get to the summit of various peaks. I think the Drakensberg is the closest possible range from home where I'm staying in Pretoria and Johannesburg. It's four to five hours drive. So initially it just started as the most accessible mountain.
Then over the years, I've just spent time there. As Ryan said, you pay school fees. You get snowed in. You get in trouble. You get out of trouble. Over years, you develop that love relationship with the mountain to see how far you can push your limits. Initially it started as an easily accessible mountain in the sense of closest drive. Then you realize that not everybody… it's not a quick fix in the Drakensberg. You've got to spend time to figure out how to drive in and out of points and then where to hike up and down the mountain nevermind spending time on top of the escarpment as we did now. So, a bit of perspective, I could give our GPS track to a lot of other people now who wouldn't necessarily be able to follow it because you need the background and the reference of previous school fees and previous experiences to be able to interpret that track. It's just over time paying the school fees and developing the relationship with the mountain.
Sandes: I think Ryno is the only crazy person who has done the traverse three or four times.
Griesel: The full one—three times now.
Sandes: He's also on numerous occasions tried to do a winter traverse, doing the same route but just trying to do it in winter when the whole route is snowed in.
Griesel: It was 63 hours for halfway [on the winter attempt], so we decided to call it a weekend.
Sandes: Yeah, so he's done some pretty crazy adventures.
iRunFar: Ryno, was that on skis when you did the winter attempt?
Griesel: No, I'm from Africa. I don't even know how to use skis. I just use trekking poles and tights. The problem is all of the southern slopes are very deep snow, so it's very slow moving and every second step you fall in. Because of the terrain being so technical, you actually step in holes between the rocks and the grass holes the whole time. It was actually a sufferfest—good in hindsight, but we wouldn't advise it to anybody.
iRunFar: Ryan, you ran Transgrancanaria just three weeks before this. That's a pretty brutal race. I know you had to push yourself to win. Either that works out to be beautiful training or a beautiful mistake in terms of preparing for the traverse.
Sandes: For sure. I think with anything, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. Your body sometimes recovers quickly and at other times it doesn't. I was quite confident, though, with it being a three-week gap that it was going to be perfect training. The traverse is so slow moving. You look at it's 207k over 41 hours—to any person who doesn't know the route, that seems really slow going. I knew the route was going to involve a lot of powerhiking, a lot of really slow running, a lot of stopping, a lot of starting. So for me, I was actually more trying to be mentally ready and to get my legs as strong as possible doing a lot of powerhiking and stuff like that. Actually, I think it worked out quite well. I recovered fairly quickly from Transgrancanaria. It was my first race of the season, so generally your recovery is a lot better. I'm doing Ultra-Trail du Mont Fuji in a couple weeks' time. It will be interesting to see how I recover for that. I think that's going to be a lot, lot more tricky than recovering from the Transgrancanaria for the traverse.
iRunFar: Yeah, I will look forward to seeing how your legs bounce back for that race as well. I want to ask about the specifics of the attempt. There was a lot of media build-up to it. Did you guys feel any pressure going into it, or were you just like, It is what it is. The pressure is the mountain rather than the hype.
Sandes: Yeah, I try not to worry too much on the external elements. Obviously, doing the attempt while having The African Attachment guys here doing a video and having Red Bull really helping us make it all happen, you obviously want to do them proud. There's always that concern. I think, for me, it was never about the time. As long as we finished I'd have been happy with that. Like we said, the terrain is so brutal and so easy to get lost or if the weather closes in… the weather definitely plays a big, big part in it. There were those kinds of concerns for me that we wouldn't actually be able to complete the project.
Griesel: For anybody, to run with Ryan is enough pressure on its own. I haven't really done anything on that level. So to be honest, my biggest pressure was running with Ryan. I was not at ease. For Ryan, it's just one [event]. One or two weeks ago, I was like 'Um hmm, I'm an accountant.' It all worked out well. We enjoyed the mountain. On the filming side, a bit of passion for myself has always been to showcase the Drakensberg mountain range to the world. I think that in the back of my head I knew the filming would add pressure. That was a big part. It was never just about the record. It was about showcasing what we have in South Africa to a bigger part of the world. It's always been a big project. The run at the end was just finalizing it. The project has been bigger than just the record to me.
iRunFar: Talk about, for a moment, your start. You guys chose 12:00 midnight to begin. There must have been some strategy to that?
Sandes: Yeah, we were originally looking to start at two or three in the morning, but then we thought if we were going to start at that time, we're not going to sleep anyway. We decided to start at 12:00 a.m. We did rough calculations and came up with a best-case scenario. We realized if we did close to 45 hours, we would be able to do a lot of the running in the daytime hours which, obviously with not following any paths at night, your pace is really slowed down. The key is to try to run in the daytime as much as possible.
That being said, we actually were so lucky with weather. It actually got a little bit too hot during both of the two days. Making sure you stay hydrated was quite tricky at times with carrying minimal gear and not wanting to take too much nutrition. Yeah, but the general strategy was to start at 12:00 a.m. and hopefully in two days' time, finish in early evening.
Griesel: Because we ran with minimum gear and the risk of bad weather and maybe the need to sleep, what we also took into consideration was our fifth summit, Giant's Castle, we wanted to hit that at about halfway. So it's 118k of the 215-odd kilometers, so it's just over halfway [distance-wise], but mentally it's halfway. There's quite a big valley leading up to Giant's Castle as well as leading down from Giant's Castle. The plan was to try to line it up with your normal body clock and your sleeping clock and to try to maybe sleep a little bit before we hit Giant's, which would be 10:00 p.m. and afterwards, which would be maybe 2:00 a.m.—which we never needed as much sleep. We knew we had to plan that if we want to sleep, to sleep somewhere in a valley because it's a little more sheltered. We didn't have any bivies to sleep in. That was also a big part of why we started at 12:00 a.m. the previous night.
iRunFar: That first night was about six hours of darkness. The press release that just came out said that during that time, Ryan, you rolled your ankle. Was that the main challenge of that time, successfully navigating and not wrecking yourselves by falling over in the dark?
Sandes: Yeah, for sure. Running at night, I was concerned with the terrain being so rough. I also took a tumble and cut my hand a bit. I think that was in the first hour. Then like you said, in the second hour, I tweaked my ankle; luckily it wasn't too bad. It was more a mental thing. You realize, if that all happens in the first two hours, what's going to happen over the rest of the time? Luckily for navigation, Ryno was in charge of that so obviously that was a big help for me. I know Ryno knows the mountain so well and he's done a lot of homework. I was pretty confident that he had that down to a tee which he did.
The first six hours, I really enjoyed them. The weather was really perfect. We started off in a t-shirt and shorts. I was feeling warm and pretty surreal just to finally get started. It's been building up for awhile now, so I was just keen to get started. To be honest, I think the first six hours were probably some of the best memories you have. Obviously, you start feeling relatively fresh and you're a lot more aware and you're taking a lot more in. I think that sunrise was pretty special on the first morning.
iRunFar: Ryno, where were you at sunrise?
Griesel: We were just past what's called the Mweni area which is quite exposed and has some sharp peaks. We were on our way to our second summit, Cleft Peak at 55 kilometers. It's a beautiful area. The sunrise just brings out all the sharp edges close to the escarpment. It was really special as was the sunrise of the second morning just as we summited Thabana Ntlenyana which is the highest peak in southern Africa.
iRunFar: Ryan, when we interviewed you after Transgrancanaria, I think you said you'd be lucky if you could do 5k an hour, but you guys were basically on 5k an hour pace that entire first day. The press release said, Ryno, that you had a bit of a setback with dehydration at some point in the heat of the first day?
Griesel: Yes, I generally struggle in the heat. I'm more used to high altitude colder conditions. Yeah, I definitely started struggling to keep liquids and food down. I had to work around that by taking little bites. Actually, that haunted me for the whole attempt until last night at the finish. I really struggled to eat which obviously influences your energy level.
iRunFar: And did that set your pace back at all?
Griesel: The big thing about the traverse is just constantly moving. We managed to do that. With Ryan's motivation, I don't think we slowed down. We had 45 hours in the back of our heads that we wanted to do in total. Even that was just a theoretical figure because I knew how hard it was to initially do 60 hours. I think we managed to, definitely with Ryan's help, keep the pace we wanted. It just wasn't as enjoyable as I was hoping. From adventure racing, you learn to suffer through it.
iRunFar: Since this was self-supported, you had all of your nutrition in your packs, and you were probably filling up [water] in the stream crossings. What was in your bags?
iRunFar: [laughs] Maybe you had 10 space blankets just to be sure?
Sandes: Yeah. No, basically I think I the majority of the pack was nutrition. Then, it's really important to be prepared for anything on the mountain. You get all four seasons in one day here. So we took two waterproof jackets, waterproof pants, a base-layer top, waterproof gloves. Our running gear we ran in. I had a buff and a beanie, shoes, socks. We both had GPS's. We took two. Ryno was in charge of navigation, but just in case anything happened to the GPS; otherwise we would have been pretty stuck out there. We both each had a headlamp with another as a backup in case something went wrong. We also had the Yellowbrick tracking devices as well. We also had some emergency gear. We took one emergency bivy blanket.
Griesel: Yeah, a very thin space-blanket version of a bivy bag if somebody should get hurt and for visibility.
Sandes: We had a really basic first aid kit, some strapping, lots of sunscreen, hats as well. We both got pretty fried out there. We're feeling a bit sunburned today. What else did we have?
Griesel: The big thing you have in the back of your head, How light can we go? But then we also felt that we had the responsibility to take the necessary emergency equipment. We didn't want to go out there and be cowboys with one jacket and nothing else because you might be fine and you might not. The two jackets worked really well even in the good weather. The second night was really cold.
iRunFar: How many calories did you carry?
Griesel: I've never been that scientific, but I carried a lot of protein bars and nougats. I'll leave all that scientific stuff to Ryan.
Sandes: Yeah, I've never been that scientific. I think the main thing was that I basically wanted to have one bit of energy or one Llama Bar per hour. I took about 50 to 55 items of food with me—Gu Chomps, Llama Bars, some Gu Roctanes, a bit of FUTURELIFE meal replacement , some peanuts, some sweets to mix it up and to have a nice variety. In hindsight, I took way too many sweet things. I used Gu Chomps a lot, no disrespect to them, but I don't think I'll be eating Gu Chomps until I go to Mount Fuji again. You just need a lot of variety because it's such a long period and you crave all sorts of things.
iRunFar: Would you guess 5,000 calories? Less? More?
Sandes: I'd say a lot more. I can tell you what I took in total. I know I took 15 packets of Gu Chomps, five Roctane gels, 25 Llama Bars, two meal replacements (FUTURELIFE and Ensure), quite a bit of Gu Brew. I'd say more like 10,000 to 15,000 calories.
iRunFar: I want to ask you about sleep. Did you take a nap?
Sandes: Going into the traverse, that was one of my major concerns. I know Ryno from adventure racing can go seven days without sleeping. I generally like to run during the day and sleep at night. We did actually, after Giant's Peak, as Ryno was saying after 118k, take a 30-minute power nap. I personally didn't sleep too much during that 30-minute power nap. As soon as I laid down I couldn't sleep which was quite frustrating. It was also quite cold. Then we started running again after our 30-minute power nap, and I was really tired about two hours later which I think was about 3:00 a.m. in the second night. We took another 10-minute power nap. Again, for the first few minutes I couldn't fall asleep. I think I only slept for about three or four minutes, but when I woke up I felt really fresh again. I was able to keep going. Then again, just before sunrise I got really tired and was feeling dizzy.
I actually thought I saw helicopter once or twice. I told Ryno, 'Do you see a helicopter there?' He was like, 'No, it's a reflection.' I seem to have a helicopter on the brain over the past few days. As far as sleep deprivation, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was just that three or four hours just before sunrise again, it was really tough for me to keep focused. Obviously, your pace drops a lot when you're so tired. Also with the terrain being so technical, you just have to be focused the whole time.
iRunFar: Ryno, I want to ask about pacing. I did rough calculations for you guys at 78k, 100k, and at the finish. Basically, your pace was the same the whole time. There was no drop-off in the second day. Was that intentional or were you just trying to move by how you felt and it just happened to stay so steady?
Griesel: We took a more adventure-racing approach, if I can put it that way, where you're constantly moving rather than trying to sprint any section. Firstly, knowing the terrain very well, you know where you can push or not. Honestly, there aren't too many areas where it's really runnable. It's more jogging than really running. We kind of worked out that if we want to do 45 hours, we worked it back based on our previous times where we wanted to be at each point in terms of times. But to be honest, that 45 hours was purely theoretical. We didn't have too much to base it on except it was what we really wanted to do. Then we just based on the GPS trying to keep that pace.
To put the route into perspective, after 160k, it really becomes brutal. Up to that point, you're combining valleys, either going down or up a valley and eventually summiting and then going down and up a valley. After 160k, you start hitting all the valleys sideways, so you're literally just climbing up, down, up, down the whole time. Some of those valley walls are maybe 10 meters less than any of the summits. There are some serious, serious climbs. To try to keep our pace in those last 45k was definitely the biggest mental challenge. In previous attempts, that's where we've lost all our time—in the last 45k.
iRunFar: Were you striving for 5k an hour pace?
Griesel: I think we just tried to move at a pace which we could keep up until the end and not let the wheels come off completely. I must say you work really hard to try to maintain 5k an hour. It's really depressing looking at the GPS and realizing with all this effort you're actually standing still. Like Ryan said, trying to explain this to anybody, you have to be out there to experience it.
Sandes: Yeah, moving so slow, I think for me, is such a big mental challenge. When you say it's 10k to go until we get to the next summit and you suddenly realize that 10k is going to take you two hours, it's taken awhile to mentally get used to that. It basically just feels like everything is in slow motion. Mentally on some of the recces it just completely broke me. The section from the first summit, Mont-aux-Sources after 8k, and then it's 47k to the next summit, Cleft Peak. Mentally, on the recce that completely broke me. On the recce we split the run up into different stages. To do that in the daytime, it's beautiful out there, but a lot of it is kind of rolling hills and valleys and it starts to look the same. Mentally that was quite challenging. But luckily with us starting at 12:00 a.m. we managed to get that out of the way before sunrise.
iRunFar: Were there any moments where either of you was just, 'Oh, dear Lord, make this end?' Or were you pretty checked into it the whole time?
Sandes: Luckily I felt relatively good and strong throughout most of the attempt. I had a few low patches. I think, for me, the biggest scare was in that first hour, falling and cutting my hand and then a few minutes later rolling my ankle slightly and then doing it again two or three hours later. Mentally, I was a little concerned if I'd been falling two or three times already in the first four hours or so, what was going to happen the rest of the time. For me, obviously, that was in the back of my mind.
I almost felt like I was running scared. On some of the descents I was really scared. I didn't want to push it too much. I suppose since it was such a long distance, it doesn't really matter too much. I definitely think the final… you descend for the final 16 to 20k. That just seemed to go on forever and ever. You just want to get to the finish. My feet weren't actually too bad until then. That final 14k or so destroyed my feet. There's one pass—what's the name of that pass?
Sandes: Yeah, that pass. It's just super rocky. It's just like this gorge that just drops off the mountain. You're kind of just boulder-hopping but it's really sharp rocks and shale. That destroyed my feet. Then you still have another 8k of downhill running after that also on some pretty gnarly terrain. My feet were just so shot. The last two or three k, I could just feel all the blisters on my feet forming and popping. That was quite tricky. It was a relief to finally see the finish.
Griesel: Yeah, I think those last 45k, the only place you really see civilization on the mountain, we have this Sani Pass road, which is an access road into Lesotho. Once you cross that road, you know there are 45k of sideways valleys. It started heating up again. I was still battling from the heat of the previous day not having eaten enough. I knew, because I've done that section so many times, what it would require climbing over all those saddles. Quitting was never an option. Snake bites—I wished for a few other things, but quitting wasn't an option. Ryan just talked me through it. He was super strong throughout, so we just got through it.
iRunFar: How did you guys end up passing the time? Were you listening to music? Did you chat with each other? Was there some Timothy Olson-style grunting? [laughs] How did the camaraderie pan out?
Sandes: [laughs] It was a combination of all of that. Generally when I race I listen to music. It's not that loud, so you still can talk if need be. Personally, I was actually surprised that I didn't listen to too much music. For me, I haven't been up here that often. These mountains are relatively new to me. In South Africa, I come from Cape Town which is at the very bottom, where the Drakensberg mountains are up a lot higher in northern to central South Africa. I think I was really enjoying taking in a lot of the scenery and absorbing a lot of that. We did chat a bit. But as I said, I think we're both fairly quiet and felt pretty comfortable running together. We didn't feel the pressure that we had to chat with each other continuously. We did chat a bit as well.
Griesel: On the navigation side, that keeps your head busy the whole time although it's also mentally quite draining. I literally checked the GPS at least every minute. The terrain is not marked. A lot of it's off camber. You want to stay on a specific contour line. You never want to lose or gain height unnecessarily. So you've got to take the GPS the whole time. I did listen to music as well, but that kept my head busy the whole way.
iRunFar: You followed your track almost to a tee. There were so few deviations.
Griesel: Interestingly, some of the deviations might be because we [intentionally] went off track. I actually changed the route quite a bit still in the last few weeks. From the time I gave that track to the website guys, we actually did quite a few recces and fine tuned the route. A lot of the deviations would be on purpose.
Sandes: With Cobus van Zyl, it was really cool how involved he was with the project. He was the previous record holder with Ryno. I think it just goes to show the camaraderie like with trail running. He basically helped us get the most efficient and economical route. He's still out here. He was still really involved in the attempt helping out with logistics. He did all the recces with us. It's really cool to see someone that you tell, 'We'd like to break your record,' and then he goes and helps you. At the start and at the finish, he may have been more excited than we were. It's pretty special to see that. I think Ryno and I are very grateful for Cobus's help. I don't think we would have been able to do all of this without him.
iRunFar: Take me to that finish line. You do that gnarly descent. Your feet are killing you. You're ready to be done. Red Bull set up a finish arch for you to run through.
Sandes: Yeah, we actually had two river crossings within the last 100 meters. Then for the Drakensberg Grand Traverse, the rules say you've got to run through the Sentinal car park gate [at the start] and the Bushman's Nek Border Post [at the finish]—you've got to run through that. Basically we ran through the Red Bull arch and 20 meters later was the Bushman's Nek Border Post and you've got to actually touch the gate. That's the rules. We could actually see the Red Bull arch when we were running down the mountain which was pretty cool to see, but I think it was also quite difficult. You could see it, but you also knew you had another two or three k's to run. It just seemed to go on and on and on. It was a relief to finally run through the Red Bull arch.
iRunFar: What were you feeling, Ryno?
Griesel: When I went underneath the arch, I touched the fence and then sat down for a few moments. Mentally, the moment I finished, I left the PR and the interviews for Ryan and I just sat alone in the grass. It's overwhelming to think the project that I've dreamed up over many, many years and having that privilege to share it with Ryan was really emotional for me. To realize that if you have a dream, you can go for it. It wasn't necessarily being so tired, I just enjoyed that moment to think that something that seemed impossible—that doesn't even mean the record time, but it means sharing my passion for the mountain with so many people—that's been a dream for a long time. I had a few moments there where I just thought, Flip it's just amazing—you live once, we must really go after our dreams.
Sandes: For me, everything has happened so quickly. I'm definitely super psyched. I think it will still kick in. I think it is probably so much more than the record. It's been all the build-ups. For me personally, some of the recces were harder than the actual attempt. The first recce I did in October with Ryno and Cobus, I came into the mountains not quite knowing what to expect. In October normally the weather should be pretty decent here, but we went into the mountains in a massive snowstorm and sideways rain. We spent 40-odd hours in the mountains. It was pretty scary for me. I think I left that recce going back to Cape Town wondering if I had decided to do the right thing trying to traverse across these mountains. Some of the recces have been quite difficult.
Then I came back and did a recce in January and the altitude just annihilated me. That was one of the longest nights of my life trying to slog through on some of the routes. It was pretty cool to see everything finally coming together. It's been a really great experience for me and something I'll cherish for a really long, long time. It's not really the time, it's more the fact that we traversed the Drakensberg mountains which is something not too many people have done on foot.
iRunFar: Did you let yourselves sort of celebrate your record? When we interviewed you, Ryan, at Transgrancanaria, you kind of hedged and said, 'Oh, if we can get under 50 hours, we'll be happy.' Then as we've been talking here, you've been talking about '45 hours.' In the end you were several hours faster than that. Are you letting yourselves celebrate the fact that you surpassed your own expectations?
Sandes: Yeah, for sure, We're definitely chuffed with the time. I had two beers last night last night to celebrate, but after two beers I was ready to go to bed so I couldn't celebrate too much. I think definitely we're chuffed with the achievement. It probably hasn't really kicked in too much as we speak. I think we'll definitely celebrate a little bit more.
iRunFar: When you look back at stuff like this, hindsight is always 20/20. You may not have much hindsight yet because you just finished yesterday evening, but do you look back on it and feel like, Oh, that was super solid start to finish? I get the sense, Ryno, that you're a pretty analytical guy when it comes to calculating pace and route. Do you look back on it and think, Oh, we could have gotten a couple of minutes here or there?
Griesel: Yeah, I'm an accountant of profession, so that comes through in everything from the packing and preparing right through. Yeah, I was quite calculating through everything. Yeah, I think I'm always strong in the mountains. I'm strong in the mountains because it's always nice and cool up there. I've raced in places like Utah and etceteras where I know I struggle in heat. When I looked at the weather predictions, although most people were happy from a filming perspective because it was going to be a nice clear day, I knew that I was going to be in for a bit of a challenge. When I did start dehydrating, I was disappointed.
In hindsight, I was disappointed that I got a bit sick and I struggled for a couple of hours during the day. But that's the challenge of life and taking on this challenge, it's such a long way. In hindsight, I'm happy that on paper we stayed on track. You can't help thinking, Okay, could we have gone faster? But the reality is, you can't really think about it like that. I think as a team, we managed pull each other through and put our strengths together to do the best possible time on the day.
iRunFar: Yes, when I listen to you guys talk it seems that you have fairly complementary strengths. You, Ryno, with your navigation abilities in that type of off-trail environment, and, Ryan, with your ability to just keep pushing on at the highest-sustainable pace on foot. It seems like you used each others' strengths to bring out the best in each other.
Sandes: Yes, for sure, I think we complemented each other quite a bit. With Ryno doing the navigation, it took a lot of pressure on me. I think it put a lot of pressure on Ryno. The whole attempt, that was where it was going to be best. You can be the fastest runner in the world but if you can't navigate and you don't know where you're going and you don't know much about the terrain, you're going to be running around in circles. If I was navigating, we'd still be somewhere around the start. I think we made a really good team. I'm chuffed with how things turned out.
iRunFar: Ryan, we're going to be seeing you at UTMF in just a month. Ryno, what are you going to do now?
Griesel: First, I'm going to see if I still have a job. I work with Salomon South Africa, so they've been super supportive. I guess they won't mind having their employee back. We've been spending quite a bit of time in the mountains over the last couple of weeks. Then I'll have a couple of local races coming up. I'll probably not race in the next month. From May onwards, I'll probably race in the local circuit. Then the World Rogaine Champs is in [South] Dakota in June. I just wanted to see how I feel after this. But I've been racing the World Rogaine circuit the last couple of years which is 24-hour navigation runs.
iRunFar: Thank you both for taking the time out of your morning to speak. Congratulations. I hope your recoveries go as smoothly as they can.
Amazing stuff. What legends! I followed the whole attempt pretty closely on the Red Bull site (although I had more sleep breaks than these 2) but hearing about it from them paints a completely different and even more inspiring picture. Congrats Ryan and Ryno and thanks for continuing to make South Africa proud.
'Thabana Nteljana' means 'nice little mountain'.. it's a small hillock on top of the escarpment, rather ungrand for the highest peak in S. Africa.
Great stuff. Many people claim they do epic stuff, but comparing to this? This is one EPIC adventure. Mad props to both of them.
Megan, Kristen thanks for the article/interview.
1) why was this run reported as a record-breaking attempt?
2) why all the media frenzy for a very strong, but far from unbelievable mountain running performance?
The run reportedly 'broke the record by some 18.5 hours' however Ryno the previous holder explained he had only walked/power hiked the last time.
Why are we comparing running records to previous walking times? It's comparing apples to oranges no?
They didn't break the running record,they set the running record. Big difference.
It stands to reason that if Ryno or any very fit mountain runner was to run the traverse they'd do so quicker than a fit athlete could walk it.
I think it'll be interesting when the record is challenged by other runners in years to come, then we can talk of records, as we will be comparing runners to runners.
This was a very strong run, no doubt.
But to the outside world, including most trail runners, even Ultramarathon trail runners it'd seem incredibly slow, unless you understood they were running on wild terrain not trails.
True mountain running, the way British athletes have always ran in the mountains – as fast as possible up, across and down mountains, ignoring the trails where necessary, after all trails aren't built for runners.
Trails are designed for average fitness walkers/hikers to be able to zig zag up a steep hill and thus lessen the severity of the slope, not to help you go the most natural/fastest line either up nor down the hill.
To see the difference in mentality of trail runners and mountain runners you'd only have to recall the controversy surrounding Killian's Teton record where he ran straight down the hill, jumping over the switch backs rather than slowing down to run the wrong direction, the route a hiker would take at leisure!
I only bring up British mountain running, as in terms of epic, off road, off trail runs such as this the Uk is much further ahead. It seems most Ultramarathon running 'in the wild' in the USA, Europe and SA is performed on man built trails not rough, tough underfoot mountain terrain, such as that in the Drak traverse.
Here are a couple links to help non British runners understand the UK mountain running culture/scene.
The second article, was written by myself and describes what a Mountain Marathon event is.
The Drak traverse, was completed mountain marathon style, as in they were self sufficient in the hills, carrying food in their backpacks. Although from the sounds of it, no camping gear, no stove, not much but a jacket and energy gels/bars.
To put the Drak traverse into perspective here's where British mountain running levels were more than a third of a century ago, in 1979 two British fell runners, both working full time jobs and training in their spare time, with no cash sponsors to help were running at twice the pace of this record.
The guys ran on very similar terrain, 15 miles further, but almost twice as severe terrain/twice the ascent and descent only 5hr s behind.
Like I said the Drak traverse sounds like a very solid performance, and they've set the record for the run, but it's almost half the intensity of where British mountain athletes were over 35 years ago.
There is almost zero financial backing for British ultra runners. The amount Red bull threw at this one event alone dwarfs any financial backing a UK runner can hope to gain from sponsors n a whole year.
I'm very confident that many of the runners in the UK mountain running scene would break This record today.
If they had Red Bull backing/serious sponsors and were able to quit their jobs and train full time, as Sandes does they would destroy this record comfortably.
I'm not trying to sound controversial, or derogatory but just arguing that we should keep it factual.
The amount of press frenzy surrounding this run just seems crazy, but that's the power of the Red Bull pr machine, I understand that.
1) There was no record broken, only a record set.


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Combining AI and Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Rapid COVID-19 Screening
Anna MacDonald
Science Writer
Anna is a science writer at Technology Networks. She holds a first-class honours degree in biological sciences from the University of East Anglia, before joining Technology Networks she helped organize scientific conferences.
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Complete the form below and we will email you a PDF version of "Combining AI and Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Rapid COVID-19 Screening"
Rapid and accurate screening can play a vital role in reducing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring that patients receive timely and appropriate treatment upon arrival at hospital. In a study recently published in The Lancet, CURIAL, an AI-based screening system developed by researchers at Oxford University, was shown to effectively rule out COVID-19 within an hour of patients arriving at a hospital emergency department.
Technology Networks interviewed Dr Andrew Soltan, NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and Yossi Pollak, co-founder and CEO of Sight Diagnostics, to learn more about the algorithm and how it is being used alongside Sight OLO, Sight Diagnostics' machine vision-based blood analyzer, to rapidly triage patients and support infection control within hospitals.
Anna MacDonald (AM): How are patients arriving at hospital emergency departments currently screened for COVID-19? What are some of the limitations of this approach?
Dr Andrew Soltan (AS): In acute care settings, such as hospital emergency departments, patients are currently being screened using the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test performed on a sample taken by a nose and throat swab. PCR results are typically available in around 24 hours, however, the workflow in an emergency department calls for rapid decision making, demanding quickly available and reliable test results. Recognizing the demand for a shorter time-to-result, lateral flow rapid antigen testing has been adopted by many emergency departments across the country. However, the ability of the lateral flow tests to confidently exclude infection in a symptomatic population is thought to be limited, with a recognized false negative rate posing challenges for infection control within hospitals.
To reduce spread of COVID-19, while avoiding care delays, there is a need for a test that is able to confidently rule-out the infection within the first minutes-to-hours of a patient coming to the emergency department. This reduces the probability of COVID-19 being unintentionally spread while waiting for results, helping to keep patients and staff safe.
AM: Can you tell us more about the CURIAL algorithm, how it was developed and how it performed in the study?
AS: The CURIAL algorithm was developed at the onset of the pandemic by infectious disease and machine learning experts at Oxford University.
The initiative was led by myself, in conjunction with Professor David Clifton's "AI for Healthcare" lab at Oxford's Institute of Biomedical Engineering.
The CURIAL artificial-intelligence algorithm looks at data that is routinely collected within the first hour of a patient coming to hospital to predict the probability of a patient testing positive for COVID-19 much sooner. The routine data assessed includes a panel of routinely performed laboratory blood tests and vital signs.
During an evaluation over a two-week test period in Oxford University Hospitals' emergency departments, CURIAL correctly predicted a patient's COVID-19 status with an impressive 92.5% accuracy.
AM: Validation of the algorithm is being supported by Sight OLO, Sight Diagnostics' blood analyzer. Can you tell us more about the platform, how it works and the advantages it offers over conventional blood testing?
Yossi Pollak (YP): Sight OLO is built with high-powered microscopes, computer vision, and artificial intelligence and relies on a patented method of "digitizing" blood samples to produce over 1,000 highly detailed images of blood from each blood sample. Once the samples have been digitized, Sight OLO then deploys machine learning to measure, classify, and count the different cells and identify abnormalities. As a result, Sight OLO measures 19 different parameters with 5-part differentials, the highest grade CBC test available.
Sight OLO is a more accessible CBC testing option in comparison to traditional CBC machines which are large, heavy, and expensive, making them extremely difficult to transport or set up outside a laboratory setting. Additionally, traditional CBC testing requires a trained healthcare professional to draw a significant amount of blood from a patient, which then needs to be transferred to a central lab – from there, it can take hours or days to get the results. Sight OLO, on the other hand, only requires two drops of blood and gives patients accurate test results in ten minutes, ultimately enabling doctors to make informed treatment decisions quickly.
There are a range of benefits Sight OLO provides for both patients and the physician. Sight OLO can be placed on any stable surface and uses disposable cartridges without the need for external reagents nor liquid waste management. Sight OLO is FDA 510(k) cleared to take blood directly from a finger prick or a venous sample, which can be performed with minimal training of an operator, and the CBC result is available directly on the screen within 10 minutes.
Sight OLO received regulatory approval for use in the UK and is CE Marked according to the IVD European directive at point-of-care settings. In the United States, Sight OLO is 510(k) cleared for use in moderate complexity laboratories.
AM: How important is rapid on-the-spot diagnostic testing, and what difference could the use of Sight OLO with CURIAL-Rapide make to clinicians and patients?
AS: The pandemic has further highlighted the need for diagnostic testing that is performed closer to the patient and that provides fast, actionable results. By having CBC test results available in a matter of minutes, doctors are able to diagnose and treat patients more quickly, and this routine data is available sooner for AI approaches making a COVID-19 status prediction.
The University of Oxford researchers are validating a version of CURIAL, named CURIAL-Rapide, that can predict the COVID-19 status of patients using only CBC results and vital signs. With OLO, a CBC can routinely be performed at the patient bedside in minutes, allowing CURIAL-Rapide to make a COVID-19 status prediction within minutes of a patient arriving at the hospital. The CURIAL-Rapide algorithm is currently being validated at the John Radcliffe Hospital, part of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, using Sight OLO to obtain CBC results within minutes. Results of this study are anticipated to be made available later this year.
Dr Andrew Soltan and Yossi Polak were speaking to Anna MacDonald, Science Writer for Technology Networks.
More from this author >
Lab of the Future: Connecting the Scientific Ecosystem
How Do Spreadsheets Hold Back Pharma Innovation?
How To Future Proof Your Laboratory Informatics Environment

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Identity theft is currently among the most rampant crimes committed in the United States. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to have a credit card or a credit history to fall victim to this threatening violation. Thieves use all kinds of personal information to wreak havoc on a stranger's life, and a credit card number is just one out of many pieces of personal information they feed upon. They find ways to steal your name, address, social security number, driver's license, bank account number, and even debit PIN numbers. For this reason, identity theft affects people of all ages, including college students.
Most college students generally feel safe walking, eating, learning, and even living on campus. A college campus is a safe community of students working to achieve the same end goal: graduation. Parents of on-campus living students are more comfortable with the thought of their kids being away from home than those of students who live off-campus in isolated and questionably safe parts of town. Yet despite the cursory sensation of security the on-campus experience provides, it is still an appropriate setting in which to consider a student identity theft protection plan.
On Wednesday, May 29, 2013, over 5,000 students attending the University of Florida in Gainesville were alerted that they may have had their personal and medical information compromised. Students who were patients at UF Pediatric Primary Care Clinic at Tower Square (now just UF Health Pediatrics – Tower Square) were believed to have had their identities snatched by a member of the clinic's personnel who had ties to an identity theft ring. The university then offered a year's worth of identity protection plan services for students who suspected identity theft stemming from the incident or who confirmed they had become victims as a result of the security breach.
The Office of State Attorney, the IRS, and the US Secret Service continue to investigate the state-wide identity theft ring. The employee since the time of the incident has been released and investigated. With the pediatric patient records he accessed, the employee could have stolen thousands of names, addresses, dates of birth, and social security numbers. Whether or not he used them for crime is unclear; accessing personal information was part of his job responsibilities. But because of his connection to the widespread identity theft ring, law enforcement has taken action against him.
Students and parents were notified and sent letters with tips on how to protect their identities and what to do in case their identities have been assumed. Much information is available on the internet and many affordable third-party protection services are available.
516,243 total articles and counting.


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Филипп II Баденский (; 19 февраля 1559, Баден-Баден, маркграфство Баден-Баден — 7 июня 1588, там же) — принц из дома Церингенов, маркграф Баден-Бадена с 1571 по 1588 год.

Биография
Родился 19 февраля 1559 года в Баден-Бадена в семье протестанта Филиберта, маркграфа Баден-Бадена и католички . Его отец погиб в битве при Монконтуре в октябре 1569 года. Опеку над несовершеннолетними детьми покойного взял на себя дядька по материнской линии — баварский герцог Альбрехт V Великодушный, воспитавший их католиками. В Ингольштадтском университете Филипп II получил образование в духе контрреформации.

Хотя его отец обещал своим подданным свободу вероисповедания, но после смерти маркграфа эта свобода все больше и больше ограничивалась его вдовой и наследником-сыном. В 1570—1571 годах, ещё во время регентства в маркграфстве герцога Альбрехта V — дядьки и опекуна юного маркграфа, католичество снова стало официальным исповеданием в маркграфстве Баден-Баден. После того, как Филипп II принял правление в свои руки, его первым указом стало требование подданным об обязательном посещении церковных служб под угрозой суровых наказаний.

По его желанию в стиле ренессанс был кардинально перестроен Новый замок в Баден-Бадене, построенный в 1579 году, что значительно увеличило его долги. Ревизия имущества маркграфа, проведенная в 1582 году, обнаружила, помимо 218 музыкальных инструментов, задолженность в 200 000 гульденов. Филипп II попытался вернуть эти долги, улучшив экономическую ситуацию в маркграфстве и увеличив налоги. Таким образом, экономика маркграфство стала постепенно напоминать плановую экономику.

Темная глава в истории правления Филиппа II — охота на ведьм. Ещё во время регентства начались процессы, но их количество значительно увеличилось во время правления самого Филиппа II. Последняя охота на ведьм при нём состоялась в 1580 году. Восемнадцать женщин были сожжены на кострах в районах Раштатт, Баден-Баден и Куппенхайм. Филипп II умер молодым, не оставив потомства. Ему наследовал его двоюродный брат и маркграф Баден-Родемахерна Эдуард Фортунат. Филипп II похоронен в Коллегиальной церкви в Баден-Бадене.

Генеалогия

Примечания

Литература
 Johann Christian Sachs: Einleitung in die Geschichte der Marggravschaft und des marggrävlichen altfürstlichen Hauses Baden, Karlsruhe 1769, Band 3, S. 249—264 online in der Google-Buchsuche
 Albert Krieger: Philipp II., Markgraf von Baden-Baden. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 25, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, S. 759—761.

Ссылки
 Philipp II. von Baden-Baden (1559—1588)

Маркграфы Баден-Бадена

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Posts tagged "Cost Accounting"
Tag: Cost Accounting
If you're looking for Tag: Cost Accounting and whether you're experienced or fresher & don't know what kind of questions will be asked in job interview, then go through the below Real-Time Tag: Cost Accounting PDF to crack your job interview.
Cost Accounting Interview Questions & Answers
Question 1. How To Get The Basic Understanding Of Cost Accounting?
To get a basic understanding of cost accounting I recommend reading the managerial accounting topics found in the second half of an introductory accounting textbook. Such a textbook is often 1,200+ pages in length since it covers both financial and managerial accounting. (A textbook containing only financial accounting topics is not helpful.) A person in the U.S. should be able to obtain a 5-year-old edition of a 1,200-page introductory accounting textbook from a re-seller on Amazon.com for approximately $5.
Question 2. Define Production Volume Variance?
The production volume variance is associated with a standard costing system used by some manufacturers. This variance indicates the difference between:
1) the company's budgeted amount of fixed manufacturing overhead costs.
2) the amount of the fixed manufacturing overhead costs that were assigned to (or absorbed by) the company's production output.
Peachtree Accounting Interview Questions
Question 3. Define Incremental Cost?
An incemental cost is the increase in total costs resulting from an increase in production or other activity.
Question 4. Define Net Incremental Cash Flows In Cost Accounting?
Net incremental cash flows are the combination of the cash inflows and the cash outflows occurring in the same time period, and between two alternatives. For example, a company could use the net incremental cash flows to decide whether to invest in new, more efficient equipment or to retain its existing equipment.
Question 5. Define Variable Cost?
A variable cost is a constant amount per unit produced or used. Therefore, the total amount of the variable cost will change proportionately with volume or activity. Generally, a product's direct materials are a variable cost.
General Accounting Interview Questions
Question 6. Define Contribution Margin?
In accounting contribution margin is defined as revenues minus variable expenses. In other words, the contribution margin reveals how much of a company's revenues will be contributing (after covering the variable expenses) to the company's fixed expenses and net income. The contribution margin can be presented as:
1) The total amount for the company.
2) The amount for each product line.
3) The amount for a single unit of product.
4) As a ratio or percentage of net sales.
Question 7. What Happened When A Fixed Cost Remains Constant In Total?
When a fixed cost remains constant in total, the fixed cost per unit of output or input will change inversely with the change in the quantity of output or input. For instance, if the rent of the production facility is fixed at $120,000 per year and there are 30,000 machine hours of good output during the year, the rent will be $4 ($120,000/30,000) per machine hour. If there are 40,000 machine hours during the year, the rent will be $3 ($120,000/40,000) per machine hour.
Financial Accounting Interview Questions
Question 8. Define Fixed Cost?
A fixed cost is one that does not change in total within a reasonable range of activity. For example, the rent for a production facility is a fixed cost if the rent will not change when there are reasonable changes in the amount of output or input. If there is a need to double the output the rent will change when the company occupies additional work space.
Question 9. Define Independent Variable?
In accounting, an independent variable is ideally a factor that causes a change in the total amount of the dependent variable. In other words, an independent variable should be something that drives a mixed cost to increase or decrease.
Management Accounting Interview Questions
Question 10. Define Dependent Variable In Cost Accounting?
In accounting, a dependent variable is likely to be the total of a mixed cost that will change as the result of several factors. A factor that causes the change in the total cost is referred to as the independent variable.
Question 11. List Some Examples Of Indirect Manufacturing Costs?
Depreciation, repairs and maintenance, electricity, etc. for the production facilities and equipment.
Salaries, wages and fringe benefits of the indirect manufacturing personnel such as production supervisors, material handlers, quality assurance, and other factory support personnel.
Factory supplies, outside services pertaining to manufacturing, and other manufacturing related costs.
Question 12. Define Indirect Manufacturing Costs Under Traditional Cost Accounting?
Under traditional cost accounting, the indirect manufacturing costs are spread or allocated to the products manufactured based on direct labor hours, direct labor costs, or production machine hours. However, in recent decades the indirect manufacturing costs have increased significantly and are less likely to be caused by the quantity of direct labor or production machine hours.
Question 13. Define In-direct Materials In Cost Accounting?
Indirect materials such as oil for greasing the baking pans, etc. will likely be viewed as part of the manufacturing supplies and will be allocated to products along with other manufacturing overhead.
Question 14. Define Indirect Manufacturing Costs?
Indirect manufacturing costs are a manufacturer's product costs other than direct materials and direct labor. Indirect manufacturing costs are also referred to as manufacturing overhead, factory overhead, factory burden, or burden.
Question 15. Define Direct Materials In Cost Accounting?
Direct materials are the traceable matter used in manufacturing a product. The direct materials for a manufacturer of dessert products will include flour, sugar, eggs, milk, vegetable oil, spices, and other ingredients in the recipes. In manufacturing, the direct materials are listed in each product's bill of materials.
Computerised Accounting Interview Questions
Question 16. Define The Coefficient Of Correlation, When Coefficient Of Correlation Is Squared?
When the coefficient of correlation is squared, it becomes the coefficient of determination. This means that an r of +0.80 or -0.80 will result in a coefficient of determination of 0.64 or 64%. This tells you that 64% of the change in the total of the dependent variable is associated with the change in the independent variable. An r of +0.20 or -0.20 indicates that only 4% (0.20 x 0.20) of the change in the dependent variable is explained by the change in the independent variable.
Question 17. Define The Coefficient Of Correlation When In A Negative Amount?
When the coefficient of correlation is negative, such as -0.80, there is an inverse relationship. An increase in the independent variable will mean a decrease in the dependent variable. A decrease in the independent variable will mean an increase in the dependent variable.
Banking Interview Questions
Question 18. Define The Coefficient Of Correlation When In A Positive Amount?
When the coefficient of correlation is a positive amount, such as +0.80, it means an increase in the independent variable will result in an increase in the dependent variable. Also, a decrease in the independent variable will mean a decrease in the dependent variable.
Question 19. Describe The Coefficient Of Correlation?
In simple linear regression analysis, the coefficient of correlation (or correlation coefficient) is a statistic which indicates the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. The coefficient of correlation is represented by r and it has a range of -1.00 to +1.00.
Question 20. How Coefficient Of Determination Is Symbolized?
The coefficient of determination is symbolized by r-squared, where r is the coefficient of correlation. Hence, a coefficient of determination of 0.64 or 64% means that the coefficient of correlation was 0.8 or 80%. (The range for the coefficient of correlation is -1 to +1, and therefore the range for the coefficient of determination is 0 to +1.)
Marginal cost Interview Questions
Question 21. Define Coefficient Of Determination?
The coefficient of determination is a statistic which indicates the percentage change in the amount of the dependent variable that is "explained by" the changes in the independent variables.
Question 22. Describe Sales Mix?
Sales mix is the relative proportion or ratio of a business's products that are sold. Sales mix is important because a company's products are likely to vary in their profitability.
Question 23. List The Contribution Margin Ratio Facts?
Selling price per unit
Fixed manufacturing costs per month
Variable manufacturing costs per unit
Fixed SG&A expenses per month
Variable SG&A expenses per unit
Fixed interest expense per month
Standard Costing Interview Questions
Question 24. Describe The Contribution Margin Ratio?
The contribution margin ratio is the percentage of sales, service revenues or selling price that remains after all variable costs and variable expenses have been covered. In other words, the contribution margin ratio is the percentage of revenues that is available to cover a company's fixed costs, fixed expenses, and profit. (The contribution margin ratio is different from the gross margin ratio or gross profit percentage and cannot be computed directly from the reported amounts on the company's external income statement.)
Question 25. Define Simple Linear Regression Analysis?
Simple linear regression analysis is a statistical tool for quantifying the relationship between just one independent variable (hence "simple") and one dependent variable based on past experience (observations). For example, simple linear regression analysis can be used to express how a company's electricity cost (the dependent variable) changes as the company's production machine hours (the independent variable) change.
Question 26. Explain Relevant Range In Cost Accounting?
Relevant range refers to a limited span of volume or activity. To illustrate, let's assume that a manufacturer's monthly production volume is consistently between 10,000 and 13,000 units and between 20,000 and 25,000 machine hours. Within this range of activity it operates smoothly with the same amount of monthly fixed costs (say $200,000) for supervisors, rent, depreciation, etc. If the volume were to drop below this range, the company would reduce the number of supervisors, the space rented, etc. so that its total monthly fixed costs would be smaller. If the volume exceeds the range, the company would incur additional fixed costs for more supervisors, space, etc. Hence, this company's relevant range of activity is 10,000 to 13,000 units of product or 20,000 to 25,000 machine hours. It is only in this relevant range that the monthly fixed costs are $200,000.
Material Cost Control Interview Questions
Question 27. Define Standard Cost?
Standard cost has been described as a predetermined cost, an estimated future cost, an expected cost, a budgeted unit cost, a forecast cost, or a "should be" cost. Standard costs are often a part of a manufacturer's annual profit plan and operating budgets. Standard costs will be established for the following year's direct materials, direct labor, and manufacturing overhead. If standard costs are used, there will be:
A standard cost for each unit of input (e.g., $30 per hour of direct labor)
A standard quantity of each input for each unit of output (e.g., 3 hours of labor for each product)
A standard cost for each unit of output (e.g., $30 X 3 hours = $90 of direct labor per product)
Question 28. What Is Cost Accounting?
This can be described as the process of accumulating, measuring, analyzing, interpreting and reporting cost information that is both useful and relevant to the internal and external stakeholders of a business entity. External stakeholders are those who have a vested financial interest in a business or company. For example banks (loans), financial houses (mortgages), investors (investments), etc. Internal stakeholders are the business or company directors, managers, division heads, etc.
One of the many benefits of cost accounting is that it turns data into information, knowledge and wisdom about a business entity's operations that is useful for:
reducing or managing costs
determining the fees or prices for goods and services
deciding to authorize, modify or discontinue a program or activity
Question 29. What Is Difference Between Cost Accounting And Financial Accounting?
The difference between "cost accounting" and "financial accounting are terms refer to the accounting techniques used internally by a company's management to determine the costs of running the business and help in decision making. For example, reports that compare budgeted to actual expenses are commonly used to monitor the successful management of a specific department or store within a larger enterprise.
Question 30. What Is The Cost Sheet?
Cost sheet is a statement of cost for a product for given period of time.
Question 31. What Are The Variable Costs?
Variable costs are those that are directly proportionate with the quantity of production and or directly associated with the service.
Variable costs are the costs that change depending on how many products you sell or how many services you provide.
Question 32. What Is Bep In Cost Accounting?
The level of activity at which total revenues equal total costs.
A point at which there is no profit and no loss.
Question 33. What Is The Difference Between Expenses And Expenditure?
The difference between expenses and expenditure. Expense is the outflow from a profit oriented organization while expenditure is the outflow from non-profit organization.
Question 34. Explain Some Of The Methods Used To Allocate Support Costs?
Headcount or number of pc's per cost center.
Question 35. What Is The Marginal Cost?
Marginal Cost (MC):The marginal cost of an additional unit of output is the cost of the additional inputs needed to produce that output. More formally, the marginal cost is the derivative of total production costs with respect to the level of output.
Marginal cost and average cost can differ greatly. For example, suppose it costs $1000 to produce 100 units and $1020 to produce 101 units. The average cost per unit is $10, but the marginal cost of the 101st unit is $20.
The EconModel applications Perfect Competition and Monopoly emphasize the roles of average cost and marginal cost curves. The short movie Derive a Supply Curve (40 seconds) shows an excerpt from the Perfect Competition presentation that derives a supply curve from profit maximizing behavior and a marginal cost curve.
Question 36. Explain The Information About Cost Sheets?
Cost sheet consists of the direct and indirect expenses incurred in producing a given product and classifying the expenses incurred according to office, administration, selling and distribution overheads.
Question 37. What Is Cmm?
CMM is an internationally recognized standard for measuring the maturity of an organization's software development processes and has become the primary benchmark multinational corporations use to judge IT service providers ' abilities to deliver high quality software. Bleum is now one of only a few companies in China to be assessed SEI CMM Level 5.
The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed under the guidance of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University in the U.S. It is organized into five maturity levels with SEI CMM Level 5 being the highest. By operating at this high a CMM level, customers ' benefit from Bleum's ability to consistently deliver high quality software on schedule, which ultimately results in a lower total cost of software ownership due to less rework and easier maintenance.
Question 38. What Is Cmmi?
Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes.
It can be used to guide process improvement across a project, a division, or an entire organization. CMMI helps integrate traditionally separate organizational functions, set process improvement goals and priorities, provide guidance for quality processes, and provide a point of reference for appraising current processes.
Question 39. What Is Chargeback?
A process in the industry where a wholesaler reques
ts an amount that is the difference between the manufacturer's price to the wholesaler and the contract price to the resale customer.
The actual chargeback occurs when the wholesaler sells the manufacturer's product at contract price that is below wholesaler acquisition cost (WAC).
Especially evident in pharmaceutical industry.
In electronic commerce, a charge back is a reversal of a credit card transaction, which is usually initiated by the card issuer as requested by the cardholder. It may also be requested by the merchant. Charge backs usually occur due to fraudulent activity on the card (real or perceived), due to customer disputes, or from other authorization issues.
Question 40. What Are Fixed Costs?
The costs that are fixed irrespective of production are fixed costs. EX: Rent, Depreciation.
Fix cost is those cost who not change in any time whether the production done or not it similar charge in every organization ex- salary of labor, supervisor factory rent insurance etc.
Question 41. What Is The Difference Between Cost Accounting And Financial Accounting?
One of the basic differences cost accounting is helpfully in controlling the cost of production whereas financial accounting is concerned is helpfully in determining financial position of a concern .
Question 42. Explain Cost Sheet?
Question 43. What Is Marginal Cost?
The marginal cost of an additional unit of output is the cost of the additional inputs needed to produce that output. More formally, the marginal cost is the derivative of total production costs with respect to the level of output.
Marginal cost and average cost can differ greatly. For example, suppose it costs $1000 to produce 100 units and $1020 to produce 101 units. The average cost per unit is $10, but the marginal cost of the 101st unit is $20
The Econ Model applications Perfect Competition and Monopoly emphasize the roles of average cost and marginal cost curves. The short movie Derive a Supply Curve (40 seconds) shows an excerpt from the Perfect Competition presentation that derives a supply curve from profit maximizing behavior and a marginal cost curve.
Question 44. What Are Variable Costs?
Question 45. What Is Bep?
EP- Break Event Point: It indicates no Loss and no Profit.
The level of activity at which, total revenues equal total costs.
Categories: Interview QuestionsTags: Cost Accounting
Accounting Principles Questions
Accounting Reports Questions
Computerised Accounting Questions
Cost Accounting Interview Questions
Financial Accounting Questions
Financial Accounting & Financial Statement Analysis Questions
General Accounting Questions
Management Accounting Questions


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Cooler Master CM-Storm Sirus-C Review
December 1, 2014 February 11, 2015 Sam Reynolds
Cooler Master has long been associated with PC components such as cooling systems (as the name implies) and cases, but the company does offer a wide range of products targeted at enthusiasts.
A few months ago the company launched the CM-Storm Sirus-C gaming headset that's compatible with both PCs and game consoles. While Cooler Master chose not to include 5.1 or 7.1 support with this specific headset model — as is popular with other vendors — the end result is a solid product that is sure to leave nobody disappointed.
Like most gaming headsets, the CM-Storm Sirus-C is big and bulky. As Cooler Master emphasizes that the headset is also compatible with consoles, it also includes RCA connectors in addition to USB.
The headset is powered by two 44mm drivers, one in each earcup, and an additional 40mm driver for bass. The build quality of the headset is satisfactory, and nothing feels like it would easily break or snap which is the case with some headsets. Included is a remote, that has all the essential functions like volume, microphone muting, and a toggle between PC and console mode. The remote also has a belt clip, but it's not clear how useful that would be for many users.
No gaming headset would be complete without a microphone, and Cooler Master provides a omni-directional microphone for voice chat.
If one were to look for a downside with this headset, it would be in the weight. At 425g, it feels a bit heavier than other competing headsets on the market.
That being said, comfort is not an issue. The headset fits snugly, with the ear cushions not digging into the user's ear making extended gaming sessions not a problem. For users with bigger heads, the adjustable headband allows the headset to fit even the biggest skulls.
Taking the headset through a few rounds of gaming, music and movies one finds that the headset does a very respectable job for the price point. Cooler Master says that the headset has a frequency range of 20Hz-20,000Hz. During gameplay sound effects were punchy, and they didn't drown out dialogue. However, during game play the bass seemed to be overbearing and too powerful. It would occasionally drown out mid-range and high-end sounds. This can be fixed, of course, through the use of an equalizer but most users don't have the knowledge or care to do this.
With any USB-powered headset there will be compromises in sound quality as it does sound slightly compressed. In this headset's case, as it's not targeted towards audiophiles, this is not a huge issue.
Overall, the sound quality is acceptable for a mid-range headset.
With the CM Storm Sirus-C, Cooler Master has built a solid mid-range headset. Cooler Master isn't targeting audiophiles, and with the price point some compromises must be made such as with sound quality. In addition, the choice of going with a standard stereo setup instead of 5.1 — as is the case with many gaming headsets — has its drawbacks too. The sound is immersive, but not as immersive as a solid 5.1 headset.
The CM Storm Sirus-C is available now from Amazon for $164.
Tags: CM-StormCooler MasterreviewSirus-C
December 1, 2014 February 11, 2015 0
By Sam Reynolds
Canadian journalist in Taipei. Formerly of China Economic Review (Shanghai), VR-Zone (Taipei) and Hardware Canucks. Freelanced here and there for publications like The Georgia Straight (Vancouver) and TechVibes (Vancouver).
View all articles by Sam Reynolds
Uber Android App Watches Your Every Move
Microsoft Said to Unveil Windows 10 Consumer Preview in January


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The Vintage Collection: The Ninety Six – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Zuckuss
Welcome to another entry in our The Vintage Collection: The Ninety Six column. Hasbro recently committed to collectors that they will be "focusing" on characters in The Vintage Collection that fall under "The Ninety Six" banner. If you're new to this, it means that there needs a modern counterpart for every classic Kenner figure. Between 2020 and 2021, Hasbro's made an admirable effort by focusing on these characters. But there is more work to be done, and we'll figure out where we are step by step. Today we assess Zuckuss.
Just a few notes: We're right in alignment with Hasbro in our vintage Kenner database with the count. There are 21 figures under the STAR WARS banner, 29 figures under THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK banner, 31 figures under the RETURN OF THE JEDI banner, and 15 figures under THE POWER OF THE FORCE banner. (Sy Snootles, Max Rebo, Droopy McCool, and Blue Snaggletooth bring the number to an even 100 figures.)
Read our assessment, and then please add your thoughts to the comments. Let us know if you agree or disagree. If you're a customizer, show us your custom definitive figure in the comments as well! Who knows? It might give Hasbro some ideas.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Zuckuss
Is there a definitive modern counterpart to 1982's ESB Zuckuss?
2010's THE VINTAGE COLLECTION 4-LOM (VC10)
Has Hasbro added this character's card art and action figure into THE VINTAGE COLLECTION? And is it definitive?
Yes. Hasbro released THE VINTAGE COLLECTION 4-LOM (VC10) figure.
Does THE VINTAGE COLLECTION release completely satisfy the modern counterpart to 1982's THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Zuckuss figure?
By definition, yes. But technically, the figure they used is terribly outdated. Most collectors want Hasbro to get permission from Disney and re-release this THE VINTAGE COLLECTION release with the updated Droid Depot 4-LOM figure instead.
If Hasbro didn't release the figure yet, do we have a near-definitive or definitive release of this character that can be added to THE VINTAGE COLLECTION as a straight repack, repaint, or with little retooling to update it?
The original THE VINTAGE COLLECTION figure meets our definition for modern counterpart. But as previously mentioned, we need an updated figure at this point.
What does Hasbro have to do so we can check off "Zuckuss" from our Vintage Vs. Modern checklists?
Other than tooling a better version of the character or reusing the Droid Depot 4-LOM figure, there isn't much else Hasbro needs to do.
The year and years elapsed (through 2021) since we last had this character in classic Kenner-styled packaging (vintage or modern)?
2010's TVC 4-LOM (VC10) 11 years ago.
2010's TVC Zuckuss (VCP02) 11 years ago.
1982's ESB Zuckuss 39 years ago.
The post The Vintage Collection: The Ninety Six – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Zuckuss appeared first on Jedi Temple Archives.
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MonaLisa Touch Clinics is a website conceived and developed by a compassionate group of medical practitioners, allied health specialists and other persons interested in helping women who are suffering from the symptoms of vaginal atrophy and urinary incontinence. We are particularly concerned about women who have been induced into menopause at an early age due to cancer related treatments and/or surgery. The adverse physical and psychological impacts on these women can be tremendous.
We also wanted to provide details of some treatment options, of course, the MonaLisa Touch CO2 laser, which we firmly believe in based upon clinical data and our own experiences. In addition, we have extended this to include a Community Chatroom so women (and men) can share their experiences, provide feedback and primarily, help each other.
The medical practitioners supporting Mona Lisa Touch Clinics all deliver the laser treatment using our facilities at Academy Laser Clinics. We currently have two locations in Western Australia, Perth and Bunbury, plus we intend to expand with a clinic in Sydney and other accessible Australian locations.
We support a variety of women's health organisations including Hamlin Fistula Ethiopia, The Hunger Project, Breast Cancer WA and others.
our MonaLisa Touch treating doctors. With his Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery in 1990, he went on to train in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, finishing in 1997. Interested in cosmetic surgery he undertook extensive facial plastics training and in 1999 established Academy Facial Plastics. In 2005, was elected President of the Australasian Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery, where he remained President for 6 years. Dr Oates developed an interest in life-style and genital-aesthetic medicine and has now expanded his cosmetic surgery to include genital rejuvenation, augmentation and enhancement. Keenly sought after by the media, Dr Oates has appeared on or been quoted by Channel 7, 9 and 10 news, the West Australian and various community newspapers, Cosmetic Surgery Magazine and ABC, 6PR and 92.9 radio stations.
with extensive experience in family practice. He then retrained as a Specialist Obstetrician/ Gynaecologist in WA and in the UK and has been in practice in Bunbury since 1995. Ron's special interests include urodynamics and the management of prolapse and incontinence. He is also interested in chronic pelvic pain and the treatment of sexual dysfunction. Dr Jewell has extensive experience in laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery. He is involved in training Registrars and other practitioners and is an accredited preceptor of many surgical techniques.
Following training in the USA, he has special expertise in cosmetic gynaecological surgery. He believes that MonaLisa Touch is a real breakthrough in the non-surgical treatment of vaginal atrophy where oestrogens are contraindicated and can help with improving sexuality and continence in women who have had vaginal deliveries.


Our mobile showroom allows you to "kick the tires" before choosing a custom remodeling project. Try out the Escape Plus walk-in bathtub. See for yourself how easy operating the walk-in bathtub door is. Sit on the flip-up seat and hold the hand held shower nozzle. Take your shoes off and walk on the shower floor. The mobile showroom displays the accessibility of our barrier-free showers.
Test out the safety bars and grab bars. See first hand how much space is available for walking or wheeling into your barrier-free shower. With the mobile showroom you can envision what your bathroom or kitchen remodel could look like. Contact your Accessible Remodeling Experts for a mobile showroom appointment. We're ready to help you maintain your independence.


That's the line Doc said to Cap'n Kirk on Star Trek so many times, that's what he would have told me yesterday about my computer.
I've been sitting within 3 feet of my computer for probably 22 hours a day, and yesterday I stepped away for a few minutes, you know to Eat, and a huge storm blew in from nowhere and before I could even get back to the cabin the rain had blown 8' horizontally through the window saturating everything in the area, which included my guitars as well as my laptop which was on and open. The keyboard was completely saturated, and the display was looping through some nasty sounding hardware failure message that I had trouble reading because I was so frantically trying to turn it off and shut the window at the same time. The next 10 minutes or so were spent trying to get the situation under control and drying everything off. Up to 1" hail came down, the neighboors had baseball sized pieces. Good news is that the heliostat mirrrors weren't broken and the whole stand rode the storm out nicely. Measured highest wind was 21, but gusts were certainly higher.
I knew the prognosis was bad for the laptop. I dried it off as best I could and waited. After a couple hours I powered it up, but it wasn't happy and didn't boot. The BIOS setup worked though and the hard drive test also passed, so I'm optimistic about the data. Ugh, I hadn't backed up since I left California, and my last backup didn't get the motor control library! I saved a shred of hope for the morning, but all I was able to learn in the morning is that the motherboard isn't happy.
Fortunately I was able to borrow a computer to write this with.
It means that one who accepts all sinful reactions (Karma) as Krsna's mercy, understanding it to be a result of his previous activities), enduring it with an undisturbed mind, while continuing to practice devotional service with body, mind, and words - such a devotee is eligible to attain Krsna's lotus feet, which are the shelter of liberation.
I can't do that yet. I try, but I'm not qualified. My mind gets disturbed, and I become angry to avoid being sad because it's so hard to live with myself while accepting that I am the cause of all my suffering. Srila Gurudeva is slowly grinding me to a fine powder because I'm too independent to surrender to him even though I want to.
Bottom line on my computer is that I need around $300 it seems to get a used Compaq 3000 that I can pop my hard drive in, and hope the heliostat code is still there. At a minimum this is going to be a one week disruption, but given my lack of funds, probably a month. I've been working on this every day and now I either can't, or I have to redo my last month's work on the assumption that I'll have to anyway. All this is just too much to accept this soon, and I'm going to have to figure out what's next after taking a couple days off (if that's possible).


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JOIN THE RACE
CURRENT ENTRIES (IRC/ORC)
ABOUT THE RACE
Winners of Previous Editions
Newspapers Release
22/08/2022: Lady First III wins the Palermo-Montecarlo 2022 in real time
The first boat to cross the finish line in Montecarlo at 23:47 last night was the French Mylius 60' Lady First III, winning on elapsed time the Palermo-Montecarlo 2022, the regatta organized by the Circolo della Vela Sicilia in collaboration with the Yacht Club de Monaco and the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda that set sail last Friday from the Gulf of Mondello.
Lady First III, an 18 ½ meter monohull built at the Italian shipyard Mylius Yacht and owned by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Dreau - on board was also the experienced and award-winning ocean yachtsman Nicolas Berenger - won the Giuseppe Tasca d'Almerita Trophy, completing the almost 500-mile route in 2 days, 11 hours and 47 minutes, a time that was longer than the record for the fastest time established in 2015 by Esimit Europa 2 (47 hours, 46 minutes, and 48 seconds), a Maxi boat which was over 40' longer.
"We are really happy to have been the first to cross the finish line; it was a particularly beautiful regatta as it was demanding", declared Jean-Pierre Dreau, upon arriving on the quay of the Yacht Club de Monaco. "It wasn't easy, the weather conditions were always varying, but the crew worked impeccably to exploit as best they could the operational tactics that presented themselves. The team was exceptional and deserved the success in this regatta which once again proved to be wonderful."
Coming in second at the finish line in Montecarlo, at 1:02 this morning was the Ker 46 Tonnerre de Glen owned by Dominique Tian, the artist of an exceptional regatta, while closing in third place was the Neo 570 Carbonita skippered by Edoardo Bonanno and Paolo Semeraro, the boat sailing for the Circolo della Vela Sicilia that crossed the finish line at 4:05, followed by the Austrian Farr 65 Sisi, which was the first boat to cross the gate at Porto Cervo.
At the moment of writing there were still 24 boats competing in the regatta after the withdrawals of seven along the way, among which Andrea Stella's Lo Spirito di Stella, the Spirit of Nerina Lauria skippered by Gabriele Bruni, and Pascal Feryn's Solano.
Once all the boats have crossed the finish line the standings for compensated time will be elaborated in order to award the Angelo Randazzo Perpetual Challenge Trophy to the overall winner of the IRC group, and the Circolo della Vela Sicilia to the overall winner of the ORC group.
A leg of the Italian Offshore Championship of the Italian Sailing Federation, of the Mediterranean Maxi Offshore Challenge of the International Maxi Association, and of the Mediterranean Class40 Trophy, the Palermo-Montecarlo is organized by the Circolo della Vela Sicilia in collaboration with the Yacht Club de Monaco e the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, supported by the Department of Sport, Tourism, and Entertainment of the Regione Siciliana and with the promotional activity of SEESICILY; the co-participation of the Metropolitan City of Palermo; the support of the Sicilian Regional Assembly (ARS) and the partners Fondazione Sicilia, Porsche-Centro Assistenza Porsche Palermo, and Tasca d'Almerita.
#pamo2022
The OFFSHORE RACE starts from Mondello's Gulf and finishes at the Principality of Monaco, organised by the 'Circolo della Vela Sicilia' and the 'Yacht Club de Monaco', in collaboration with 'Yacht Club Costa Smeralda'.
with us for the race
Yacht Club de Monaco
ycm@yacht-club-monaco.mc
www.yacht-club-monaco.mc
Circolo della Vela Sicilia
info@circolodellavela.it
www.circolodellavela.it
Yacht Club Costa Smeralda
info@yccs.it
www.yccs.it
Regata Palermo-Montecarlo 19-24 August 2022 | Angelo Randazzo Trophy - Giuseppe Tasca d'Almerita Trophy


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'Getting involved in Parkinson's research', the 15th episode of series two of the multi-award-winning Parkinson's Life podcast, is available now on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Spotify and Google Podcasts. Please rate and review the episode to help others find us – and if you have feedback, or ideas for future episodes, get in touch at editor@parkinsonslife.eu to share your thoughts.
Don't be scared of research. Don't be scared of asking questions
Shafaq Hussain-Ali
Podcast: Getting involved in Parkinson's disease research
Author: Sarah McGrathPublished: 28 April 2022
A research expert and two people living with Parkinson's join our multi-award-winning podcast to explore what it means to take part in research on the condition – and discuss the different ways people can get involved
When Amelia Hursey – research manager at Parkinson's Europe – started working in Parkinson's research, she noticed "a massive wealth" of people looking to take part in trials, but a lack of understanding about how to get started.
UK-based Shafaq Hussain-Ali, who was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2019 and has yet to take part in trials, agrees. "I feel like I had to go out there and find information about research," she says. "I think that's part of the barrier to recruiting people – not everyone knows where to go."
Joining Amelia and Shafaq on a new episode of Parkinson's Life podcast is Karl Wouters from Belgium, who has taken part in trials since his diagnosis six years ago. In the episode, he discusses his current involvement in a longitudinal study – in which researchers analyse the same participant over time – for a "PET scan trial, where they measure the neurons that are producing dopamine".
Yet this only one of the many forms that research can take, says Amelia. "There's been a massive shift in research," she says, with Covid-19 meaning more trials are taking place online – including observational trials and questionnaires.
"There have been a few silver linings to Covid-19," agrees Shafaq. "It has made everything so much more accessible."
Shafaq Hussain-Ali.
"Trust is key for people to get involved"
So, what should people with Parkinson's consider before taking part in research?
According to Karl, "Trust is key for people to get involved." In his case, he explains, "It was my neurologist who talked to me about participating in clinical trials… the treating physician is really a very important person for matching the clinical trials that are available to you as a patient who wants to participate."
He also feels it's important to "check what you want to participate in and what you're not comfortable with".
Karl Wouters.
Shafaq encourages others to get involved: "Don't be scared of research. Don't be scared of asking questions."
Amelia, meanwhile, emphasises the importance of accessibility: "For a long time, research seemed like an exclusive club. But that's not true," she says. "The only way we get improvements for our healthcare is through research being done – so it's about letting people know that it's for everyone."
Her advice for people looking to take part? Slow and steady. "You wouldn't go to a swimming pool and jump off the highest diving board first, would you?" she says. "Go find the information and take yourself on that journey – one step at a time."
"Dare to ask," adds Karl, "what's in it for me?"
Amelia Hursey.
To hear more from Amelia, Karl and Shafaq, tune in to the latest episode of the multi-award-winning Parkinson's Life podcast: 'Getting involved in Parkinson's research'.
For more information on the latest Parkinson's research, please visit Parkinson's Europe website.
Podcast: Women and Parkinson's – the research gap
Podcast: Women and Parkinson's – health and wellness
Podcast: Women and Parkinson's disease – the research gap
Addressing the "lack of information" on women and the condition
Podcast: Breaking the silence on impulsive and compulsive behaviours
An impactful conversation about medication, stigma and Parkinson's diseas
Podcast: Deciding to have DBS surgery
Two guests discuss deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease