And He Blogs

Muscial artists current and past are extending their careers in Second Life.

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He almost makes it to the next level.

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I try to keep up with this stuff, I really do, but sometimes a desperate plea from a colleague, leads me to discover resources as yet unseen. The latest is a site created at the University of California, San Francisco in their Center for Instructional Technology, for embedding media into a web page. A couple of serendipitous clicks lead me to the Embedded Media HTML Generator. Start with a specific file format like Windows Media, Real, Quicktime, or Flash, or even generic file formats like MP3, then run through the three step process and viola! You get the HTML code to paste into your web page. Fast and easy, and it keeps folks thinking that we are the technology geniuses.

Psst. Thanks to WordPress and the PodPress plugin, this stuff is built into my blog!!!

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Google Maps and Flash gives you this. Hours of fun flying over DC (and other neat places . . . the Moon. Mars), though if I spend too much time crashing into landmarks, I might get a visit from my government.

Thanks to Adobe Blogs.

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The original Star Trek had this strange ability to be overwrought with seriousness and, at times, still make fun of itself. This “inspirational poster” is a tribute to the latter. It is avalable at, of all places, Star Trek Inspirational Posters. September 8, 2006 is the 40th anniversary of the airing of the first ever episode, and TV Land is celebrating by showing four of the original Star Trek episodes that night. They will then add the show to their regular rotation in November. In case you’re wondering, you can put me in the camp of liking the original version of Star Trek the best. It came at a time when this country was going through significant social upheaval, and this series dealt with some controversial issues, including the famous “inter-racial kiss” between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura. Time to introduce my boy to this groundbreaking show.

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I had a little chuckle with an email I received. The text of the message started out like this:

Dear Customer,

We recently reviewed your account and suspect that your University of Virginia Community Credit Union Banking account has been accessed by an unauthorized third party. Protecting the security of your account and of the University of Virginia Community Credit Union network is our primary concern. Therefore, as a preventative measure, your account has been locked due to inactivity or because of too many failed login attempts.

Since I apparently forgot that I had a UVA Credit Union account I thought I would check it out and click on the link. Click on the screenshot thumbnail to see the full page:

I just love that it asks for an “Atm Pin”. Cute.

By the way, the other links on the page don’t work. Imagine that.

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Floyd !!!!!!

Originally uploaded by Hugo*.

Many people know that I’m a cyclist. Every year I ride the 150 mile, 2-day event called the Virginia Dare, a ride to raise funds for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Some people even ask me when I’ll ride the Tour de France, like it really is a “tour” and not a race featuring the best riders in the world. So over the past two weeks, people have naturally asked me about my opinion on L’affaires de Landis - the accusation of him taking banned substances.

First, let’s get the scientific facts out of the way. There are two tests that he failed. The primary one that got the attention of the officials was his ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone. It is a ratio that should remain basically constant. Landis’ fluctuated beyond an acceptable level. The secondary test really nails the detection of synthetic testosterone. The test is meant to measure the difference in carbon isotopes in synthetic and naturally occuring testosterone.

So he’s guilty right? Well, purely based on the results of his test, it is apparently so. However, for me, it is a nagging verdict, and while I don’t tend to be a conspiracy theorist, it is a highly suspicious verdict. The first thing that is questionable is why? Why would he take synthetic testosterone? The effects of it would be increased muscle mass (think Barry Bonds). A great result if you are a sprinter and need lots of leg speed to challenge other sprinters in the flat stages of the race. But Landis is a hill climber and exactly what you don’t need is to carry more weight over the mountain. That’s why the sprinters usually finish dead last in the stages in the Pyrenees and the Alps.

Here’s another point that would fly in the face of logic. Steroids, in order to have an effect, work over a period of weeks/months. Landis had been tested throughout the Tour de France, and the only time he came up positive was after the 17th stage when he came back and whooped the field by 5 and a half minutes. Steroids don’t work like Advil. They don’t kick in over night. Was Landis naive enough to believe that these drugs would help him recover? Tour de France riders are very much informed about what they should be putting into their bodies to perform. They even hire personal chefs to make sure they eat right and that no one spikes their food.

A doping accusation that would make more sense would be that he took EPO, an artificial agent used to increase the oxygen carrying red blood cells in the body. It is a treatment that cancer patients use to fight the intense fatigue associated with chemotherapy. Nothing like that abnormality (a high hemoglobin count) was found with Landis.

Landis has been winning races all year, including the Tour of Georgia in May, where he would have been tested quite thoroughly, over several days, for all banned substances. Nothing. Not until stage 17 of the Tour de France on July 30th. Was this just a last gasp desperate attempt at salvaging what looked like a lost Tour? In so many ways it just does not add up.

And, the main point is this. Even if he did willingly take the steroid, it had no effect, at least nothing more than a placebo-like effect on him. He was THE strongest rider in the 2006 Tour and the fact that he failed the test for this particular drug doesn’t mean it was winning by cheating. Maybe ultimately he should be found guilty of attempted cheating, but it would be a case of botched cheating because he used and entirely incorrect substance to cheat with.

So the conspiracy theory remains to gnaw at me. Maybe there is something wrong with the test (?)

UPDATE: A little bit more info/opinion from Phil Ligget the British broadcaster who covered the race for the Outdoor Life Network

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