Lance Exonerated. Cycling Not.

CyclingNews reports:

According to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, the UCI's appointed independent lawyer Emile Vrijman says Lance Armstrong should be cleared of any suspicion surrounding the retrospective testing of his blood samples from the 1999 Tour de France.

I have been a major fan of professional cycling for many years now. I know first hand that cycling fans suffer a lot. Doping IS cheating and something should be done about it, but professional cycling is not (and has not been) handling it very well. After a record setting SEVEN straight Tour de France victories, last fall, the managing director of the TdF, Jean-Marie LeBlanc, completely denigrated Lance's achievements saying:

"On the 24th of July we turned the page on a long, very long chapter in the history of the Tour de France. And one month later, current events made it clear to us that it was just as well that this was so."

It could only be a reference to seven-time Tour winner Armstrong, and the subsequent doping allegations published in the ASO-owned L'Equipe newspaper that came out one month later

Shame on LeBlanc! Especially after all the praise he lavished on Lance during those seven years and all the publicity and new fans that Lance brought to the TdF.

As a final note, wouldn't you think that Mr. Pound, the World Anti-Doping Agency chairman, would use Richard or Rich as his first name?

Organic Food For The Beam

Here is an interesting article that my wife forwarded to me which discusses the benefits of feeding your child organic food. Actually, it seems to discuss the perils of NOT feeding your child organic food.

Children may be at risk of higher exposure to the toxins found in nonorganic food because baby food is often made up of condensed fruits or vegetables, potentially concentrating pesticide residues.

Markets

My father found this Global Risks Prediction Market. I have heard of using a market to make forecasts before, particularly the Iowa Electronic Market. The Iowa market, supposedly, is more accurate in predicting election outcomes (eg.) than all the polls that you see in the news. (I don't know if that is true.)

I believe that if people are risking real money, the market will tend towards a valid prediction. If the preceeding is a fair statement, I wonder how accurate a market will be which only uses fake money and no risk as the Global Risks Market does.

Also, I wonder how important the phrasing of the market's question must be. One of the featured questions on the Global Risks Market home page is "How many severe weather events will occur in 2006?" I have a hard time seeing that today's answer is anything more than a guess by any individual. Contrast that to, "Who will win the 2006 Ga. Governor's Race?"

I don't really know anything about economics though. It might be interesting to join the Global Risks Market and observe.

The Dawning of Ivan

What can be said about Ivan Basso? He made the Giro d'Italia boring this year. Second place was over 9 minutes back.

Not A Gamer, But...

I'm not a gamer but, I've always been fascinated by the addictive powers of video games. I've always wondered if you could somehow apply those addictive aspects to real life and actually accomplish something real. Who knows? Regardless, here is a game that looks intriguing. Check out the flash intro. I love it. Of course, I doubt I will ever spend the time to play the game. If anyone has, let me know how it was...

From the mind of Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, comes SPORE™, an epic journey that takes you from the origin and evolution of life through the development of civilization and technology and eventually all the way into the deepest reaches of outer space.

Hot, Hot, Hot

The weather channel says 89 degrees. I took the bean to the zoo. Fisher-Price was having a play-with-our-new-toys day. It was a covered area, but it was quite warm. The bean was hot too, but she did great. After her normal scope-the-situation period, she began to dive in to the chaos of kids and be-camera'd dads and grab toys with which to play. I don't know why they feel the need to label sections "Toys for Boys" and "Toys for Girls". Whatever. If the bean can read, she hasn't mastered the vocal talents to say that she can.

Blinded

Here is one reason for NOT living intown. Of course, a circling police helicopter with spotlight engenders a certain, yet somewhat different, thrill.

Climatologists Should Be Mechanical Engineers?

From Yahoo News:

"New technologies will change how we live and how we drive our cars, which all will have the beneficial effect of improving the environment," Bush said. "And in my judgment we need to set aside whether or not greenhouse gases have been caused by mankind or because of natural effects and focus on the technologies that will enable us to live better lives and at the same time protect the environment."

A Bean In Water

We took the Bean to the pool at Georgia Tech today. At first, she was uncertain about the wisdom of being submerged in a tub that big and she had doubts about the integrity of the wearable raft. But, by the time she was pruned and turning blue, she only wanted to stay. She's too small for the slide they have there. We need to get one for our house.

The inside of Tech's CRC (new SAC) is really impressive.

Dog, Accused

There is a Mockingbird who sits on the telephone wire over my car, guarding. He does not react to two-legged organisms, but the four-legged variety must beware! Four-leggers are, after all, a wiley class of animal. They sneak. They climb. They steal the unhatched!

I live with a Great Dane. He has four legs, but he doesn't sneak or climb. I saw him steal a muffin from the kitchen counter once...

Regardless, the Mockingbird still sees him as a threat. I was walking the Big Dog on a leash yesterday when a gray demon fell from the sky with a flutter of flailing wings targeting the Dane's back end. I dove to the right, not afraid of pointy beak nor lizardlike claws, but rather the payload that may be unleashed. The attack was over almost before it started and the demon returned to his perch. The Big Dog, oblivious to the bird, slowly turned to face me with a sour look on his face. He said, "Now, what are you doing?"

"Nothing" I said as I straightened my hair and brushed dirt off my pants. "Nothing at all."

New Job - Same Company

I have just moved from a QA position to a developer position. Of course, there is no replacement for my QA duties yet...

Suddenly, work is real busy.

Who ARE These People?

All right. Yesterday's post was a little bit of fun. Sure. Strange people are scary. But it doesn't keep me up at night...

Did you see the ABCNews blog about the government tracking a reporter's phone calls? I thought about that one for a little while around 4:56am today.

...and who ARE these people that are posting their comments on the ABCNews blog? Go ahead. Scroll down and look at some of the comments. Waste a few minutes. Here's a sample:

Good! I hope they do find out who is leaking national security info to the press. I'm tired of the press helping our enemies. Maybe you guys should start trying to "FOR the USA" instead of "AGAINST the USA" ALL THE TIME. I hope the FBI nails lots of idiots who are out to destroy the intelligence agencies and cost us more soldiers and spys!

The comments section is packed with similar rants. Almost every comment is against the media.

I Am Afraid

I chose to ride MARTA in to work today. I walked to the train station which is not located in the most attractive part of town. When I arrived, the place was surrounded by police cars and fire engines. I think that there was a car on fire in the parking lot.

I climbed to the train platform. As I stood waiting, I heard an awful sound. Perhaps the sound was a cross between a beached whale and a rail car without wheels. (I can only guess, because I have heard neither of these before.) An impeccably dressed man emerged from the escalator and made his way along the platform. He passed too close to me for comfort. Shortly, he satiated himself re:his wailings. The train arrived and I entered the car. There were no free seats, so I stood. The Man Who Wailed entered the same car at the opposite end. As we departed the station, he found new inspiration to vociferate. I saw the seated passengers around me begin to cringe in the same manner that my former platform costanders had. I looked down the car to see the man's status. He was looking directly at me as he yelled, waving his hands in my direction. As the patrons noticed this they slowly, yet collectively, began to redirect their gazes towards me...

Please don't hurt me... I'm just trying to go to work, make an honest living, etc... I just want to live...

HelloWorld

This is a test.