Medical Marijuana?

If you claim to use marijuana for medical purposes, you better be eating it, because smoking one joint is 5 times worse for your lungs than one cigarette. So there goes one more justification in using the medical marijuana argument for pot legalization. Not to mention the increased chances of developing psychosis...

Happy News For The Manolo

Here's a bit of news the Joeschmo is sure will bring the tears of amusement to the shoeblogger Manolo: A Pittsburgh area hospital has banned crocs, citing safety concerns. The Joeschmo is also sure the Manolo would cite the nurses for the crimes against the fashion.

Metal Thieves Spoil Food Bank

In Indiana, a food bank was hit on Friday night, but not for any cash, or even any food, but for the copper pipes in the refrigerator units. But since the thieves disabled the refrigerators just before the weekend, workers there did not discover the theft until Monday, and all the spoiled food thereafter. For only a few hundred dollars worth of scrap metal, the thieves caused 20,000 dollars in repairs, and almost 500,000 dollars in the loss of the spoiled food.

As more stories like this, like the looting for metal in the evacuated homes near the Tahoe fire, and irrigation pipes for farms, it's no surprise that legislators are beginning to pay attention to this problem, specifically going after the scrap metal dealers.

Possible Good News for Jittery Outdoor Enthusiasts

If you're like me, who spends hours in the sun while exercising, the amount of sunlight you get is a constant worry. Not only do you have to worry about ridiculous tan lines, but there's the specter of increasing the odds for skin cancer, even with all that sunblock slathered on. I'm naturally melanin enhanced, thanks to my Pacific Islander heritage, so I usually don't put sunblock on, unless I'm going to be in the sun for more than six hours, but little did I know that I do something to protect myself from skin cancer without covering up like a mummy: I drink buttloads of coffee.

According to the experiment, mice that drank the equivalent of caffeine found in 1 or 2 cups of coffee, and ran their little buzzed hearts out on a wheel, were found to have fewer incidents of cancerous growths than mice who did one or the other, or neither. Well, I'm not a mouse, and I don't run on an exercise wheel (literally anyway...), so I don't know how much this experiment will apply to humans. Also, I don't drink more than two cups of coffee during a ride after the results of my own experiment proved a little bit detrimental to my heart rate, so I won't worry about the drop-off in apoptotic cells. So, if you like coffee and sweating outdoors, there's now a possibility you don't have to worry about contracting skin cancer later in life.

Tour Tidbit du Jour Finale - 7/29/07

The Tour de France is all over for this year, except for the crying. And there will be a lot of crying over the doping scandals and the legal wranglings. None of these stories should take anything away from the top three finishers, who all finished within 31 seconds of each other.

After being a little dodgy about the gentlemen's agreement not to attack each other on the last day, Cadel Evans kept his word, and he and Levi Leipheimer kept their positions and time gaps, so there was a little less crying in Paris than there could have been. Of course, judging from this year's podium picture, there was also less crying around the stage in Paris, than in last year's podium pictures.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/28/07

After putting in the time trial of his career, and winning his first ever stage in the Tour, Levi can be happy for his 3rd place finish in the overall classification. But could he have finished in second if the Tour commissaires had decided on two things a little differently? First was the 3 second time gap in yesterday's stage during the bunch sprint when Tom Boonen solidified his hold on the sprinter's jersey by racing for fifth place. Cadel Evans finished in the same time as those sprinters vying for points, but the judges decided there was a 3 second gap between them and the rest of the peloton. Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer lost those 3 seconds to the Australian in second place overall.

When the top three riders are only separated by 31 seconds after the time trial, those 3 seconds seem important, which leads to the second judgment against the Discovery Channel boys. Levi could have been in second if he had not been penalized 10 seconds during a mountain stage. Evans finishes the Tour only 8 seconds faster than Leipheimer, and those ten seconds would mean that Levi would be in 2nd place, only 21 seconds behind Contador. I think it was a gamble Bruyneel had to take, because if Levi had not taken the "bidon (bottle) pull", he could have finished 40 or more seconds behind the leaders, including Evans, on that particular stage, so talking about those ten seconds is really a moot point. More importantly, Levi got a 12 second time bonus when he finished 2nd behind Rasmussen on the last mountain stage, and Contador took the 8 second bonus away from Evans, who finished 4th. Unfortunately, because Rasmussen was dismissed from the Tour without any positive doping violations, Levi and Contador do not get recalculated time bonuses, unlike the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place finishers behind Alexandre Vinokourov's mountain stage win. Still, it's fun to think about all these what-if scenarios.

Incidently, Vinokourov's B sample came back positive for blood doping, but he intends to fight the charges, already retaining the services of Floyd Landis' attorneys in his respective arbitration hearing. Vino's lieutenant, Andreas Klöden, still believes in his captain's innocence, and even in his other teammate Matthias Kessler, who had a positive test for testosterone come back with a T/E ratio of 85 to 1, because he does not believe they would be so stupid, especially in Vino's case, to dope during this hysterical climate of anti-doping scrutiny. He is considering retiring because he does not want to get caught up in the current witch hunt, actually worrying about someone spiking his food.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/27/07

They may as well call this year's Tour, the Tour of the Dog. Not only because of the doping scandals, but also because of the unleashed animals on the side of the road causing problems for the riders. We had Marcus Burghardt make an anti-commercial for carbon wheels with the help of a yellow Lab. Then in today's stage, the breakaway group met up with a chocolate Lab, who took down two riders, Frederik Willems of Liquigas and Sandy Casar of FdJ.

	Here we see the chocolate Labrador just casually cross the road, as the riders are going full speed.
	Casar nicked the dog going around it and Willems broadsided it. Willems then collided with Casar as they both went down hard.
	And finally we see the dog running away while Casar gets his bike in order.

Casar went on to win the stage, but Willems took a little longer to collect himself, and rejoined the peloton. Maybe next year the Tour organizers will introduce a leashing fine for dog owners, because we've had two incidents this year that may have altered the outcome of their respective stages.

Helmety Film Festival

While we're over halfway through with the summer that imagination forgot, at least in the film industry, there are still many film festivals out there showcasing new talent. Honestly, it shouldn't take much imagination to fill out the third installments of Shrek, Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribean, Ocean's (insert number here), Bourne Something or Other, plus all the other sequels like Fantastic Four, Harry Potter, Evan Almighty (more spin-off I admit), and Die Hard. Please tell me if I missed any others, because I'm sure I did. But independent films are still being made, just don't be naive to think that talent alone is enough to get you noticed at Cannes or Sundance. It's all about swag, and the coolness of your giftbag, these days. The crew from Blood Gulch entered the Sundance Film Festival with their face masks set to optimum transparency.

"We got something called iPuds... don't ask."

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/26/07

The mountain stages are over, and hopefully all that other crazy stuff, so all that's left for the Tour is some individual pain before champagne on the road, and the cobbles of the Champs-Elysées. The sprinters have a very different experience of pain in the mountains, as they try to avoid elimination by the time limit, which is based on some weird calculations depending on the course profile. However, the sprinters can nullify the elimination with tactics of their own. By getting more than 20 percent of the riders in the "autobus" (grupetto in the Giro d'Italia), the group of riders at the back of the race, the sprinters can have a pretty easy mountain stage, taking their time and conserving their energy.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/25/07

Just when I thought things could not have gotten worse with the doping allegations that broke out yesterday with the withdrawal of Astana after team captain Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping, two more thunderbolts struck. Team Cofidis withdrew following Cristian Moreni's positive hit for exogenous testosterone. Moreni admitted his guilt and did not ask for his B sample to be tested. The second thunderbolt, absolutely rocking the Tour's foundations, is that Rabobank fired overall leader Michael Rasmussen, kicking him out of the tour. He was dismissed over the administrative violations for missing two surprise tests before the Tour, but apparently could not even provide a good enough accounting of his whereabouts to his team managers. After an amazing mountaintop battle between the Discovery Channel riders Alberto Contador and Levi Leipheimer, it appeared we knew who the winner of this year's Tour was. Now we don't. Leipheimer was trying so hard to put time into Cadel Evans so he could get that third place finish, but now all that work and worrying doesn't matter. He's third because Rasmussen told his team he was in Mexico when he really was in Italy. And here's the ironic quote of the day, with just that hint of hubris: "'Maybe I changed a few minds today,' said Rasmussen, when told that a poll taken back in Denmark found that most didn't believe he could hang on for the overall win."

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/24/07

Rest days during the Tour are usually times for the riders to talk about non-tour stuff. Like contract negotiations, new sponsors, off season plans, etc. But, in a Tour edition that already feels dirtier than last year's doping scandal ridden tour, with Pettacchi just cleared for using his asthma inhaler instead of receiving salbutamol orally or by injection, Rasmussen being unavailable for surprise testing in June (and now time-trialing better than Valverde!), and now Vinokourov testing positive for blood-doping and his entire team withdrawing. It's the same incompetent lab at Châtenay-Malabry, so I'll be waiting for the B sample results, but this Tour, in its last week, is now on worse footing than last year's Tour in its first week. Tour contenders are out (Kloden, Kashechkin), a whole team dismissed (Astana, who missed last year too because too many of its riders were implicated), an abandoned rider testing positive from a test over a month ago (Sinkewitz), and the overall leader with doping suspicions hanging over his head while he's still riding (Rasmussen) instead of last year's situation of the winner testing positive after the Tour was over (Landis). I'm a bit pissed off at the whole doping story, because it seems that the unions and organizers still don't know how to deal with this, since even the fine of a whole year's salary doesn't seem to be a deterrent, if the riders are actually guilty, which we can't be sure, since that stupid Paris lab has not been reformed, and is still leaking its positive results like a rusty bucket. The whole anti-doping movement seems to be broken, and those within its organizations don't know how to fix it, or even whether to address it.

Royal Oddities

I guess that royal inbreeding still produces eccentric "cousins."

Norway's Princess to teach how to talk to angels

The good news: she is not next in line for King Harald's crown; the succession falls to her younger brother. The bad news: Norwegians have to pay up to $5,000 to learn how to "create miracles." What a bargain!

Chinese Space Merchandising

In a move that reminded me more of Spaceballs, The Movie, instead of a progressing space program, the Chinese have decided to sell the snacks that their astronauts will eat. Well, that worked so well for us when we trotted out Tang. When's the last time you saw a Tang commercial? Besides that, we see how very worrying the food quality issue has become in China, when the main selling point of the space snacks is its manufacturing standards: "For example, we required the air in the food workshop should be as clean as that in a pharmaceutical workshop." Right. Because it was the air that contaminated the pet food and the toothpaste. The Chinese have already executed the former food and drug agency chief. I don't think selling space snacks will reinforce how serious they are for reforming their quality controls. Prosecuting bribery and lax enforcement will do that better than "cosmic chocolate."

Light Blogging?

Just a note of warning, maybe, that I might (will) be preoccupied by a double dose of obsession this week, which might (will) curtail my blogging time. First, the most important week of the Tour de France is happening right now, so at least expect a daily tidbit during this time. Second, while waiting for my copy of Harry Potter, I'm listening to the audio book. Will I finish the narration before the book gets in my grubby little hands? I dunno, but I'm dying to find out. 21 and a half hours of some English bloke's voice... Thank God he's good at what he does. Accio Liber Quod Celior! (Or something like that...)

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/23/07

After watching two incredible mountain stages, with attacks coming fast and furious between the number one and two riders on General Classification, Michael Rasmussen and Albert Contador, it helps to know just what they're thinking when they jump up and kick their bikes past the other guy. The tactics for attacking in the mountains are much different than attacking in the last 200 meters of a sprint. Chris Carmichael, former fitness coach for Lance Armstrong, offers a few established rules for breaking your rivals on the incline. But the most important thing is to treat the climb like a poker match:

It pays to know a person well at this point, because to borrow a word from poker, everyone has their “tells” that indicate they’re in trouble. It could be the way they grip the bars or how they rock their shoulders or point their toes. Lance said that when he saw riders struggling at a hard portion of the climb, that was the best time to go. Rasmussen and Contador used the same tactics to leave their rivals behind today, and you can do the same in your races.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/22/07

Johan Bruyneel, when asked about the doping paperwork that seems to have tripped up Michael Rasmussen, provided an interesting analogy:

Bruyneel: I mean, I compare it a little bit to, if you're driving the car, and you get a warning or a fine, you keep driving, and if the police stops you and takes away your driver's license, you stop driving.
Question: That's never happened to you, has it?
Bruyneel: I still have my driver's license. I almost lost it in Georgia.

No Mashups In The Future?

It looks like not much changes in the future for online video sites, except maybe making it harder to make AMV's (Appreciation Music Videos) of your favorite anime. I can't even imagine what a Space Rock Opera in Brewster Rockit's time would look like...

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/21/07

Troubles are still piling on Patrik Sinkewitz, the T-Mobile rider who is recovering from an accident with a spectator after Stage 8, then found out about a positive doping result on his hospital bed, and now is facing civil lawsuits back in Germany from a contract dispute. But according to Christian Vande Velde, an American rider for Team CSC, all these things couldn't have happened to a nicer guy:

Not that I feel for him in the slightest way. Frankly, if he needs any help re-breaking his nose, I know a lot of people who would love to give him a hand.

C'mon Christian! Tell us how you really feel!

Amp'd Mobile Loses Power

Heh. Amp'd Mobile may be out of business as early as Monday. Let this be a lesson to "edgy" tech companies going after the "deadbeat youth" market. Added bonus: no more of those annoying "deadbeat youth" commercials.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/20/07

Many riders describe the atmosphere of their teams as similar to one of family. For one team, CSC, that's literally true, since Frank Schleck and his younger brother Andy are both members. Unfortunately, Andy did not make the Tour de France roster. There are other brothers in the Tour this year, but they are racing against each other. We have a German pair, the Grabsches, who are only separated by 13 seconds in the General Classification. Bert, the elder riding for T-Mobile, leads his brother Ralf, who rides for Milram. The French pair, the Chavanels, are very different cyclists. Sylvain, a Cofodis member, is a breakaway artist and climber. His younger brother Sébastien, is a sprinter for FdJ, and is more than an hour behind the elder in the GC.

Helmety Regrets

I'm sure many of us have looked back over our lives and experienced some twinges of regret. A "maybe I should have" here, or a "perhaps I should not have" over there. Even the guys in Blood Gulch have past regrets, especially Sarge, who would have been a much more welcome desktop companion than Clippy. If only Microsoft exec Steve Balmer had been more open to input from his speechwriters...

"Where do you want to go today, dirtbag?"

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/19/07

Just how tough is Alexandre Vinokourov? Even after some tough days in the Alps, where he has lost 8 minutes to overall leader Michael Rassmussen, made much more difficult because of his crash injuries earlier in the tour, Vino still took advantage of the strong crosswinds on today's flat stage to drive from the front and split the peleton, catching out one of his rivals Christophe Moreau. He even tried his own little breakaway maneuver about 3 kilometers from the finish, but ended up not surprising the sprinters still at the front. How bad are Vino's injuries? Bad enough to worry about infection in his left knee, and raw enough to have the tour doctors change his bandages during the race.

I don't even want to think about what's under there!

Hand Sanitizers Better Than Nyquil

"Better than Nyquil at what?", you may ask. At 124 proof, it's way better in getting little kids drunk. Instead of rubbing the lotion into the skin, the kids just lick their hands clean. Cheers! Just another reason to avoid the rise of superbugs, with the bonus of stopping the trend toward raising a future nation of paranoid germaphobes.

Floyd Landis in Pasadena

photo © Michael Sampiano

Floyd Landis' book tour landed in Pasadena last night, at the Borders Bookstore on Lake. I didn't have a chance to go, but my friend Michael did, and got a few good shots of our So Cal native. Floyd stayed long enough to sign for everyone, and apparently, anything the guests brought. As you can see below, he even signed someone's Trek Madone frame. I'm not sure if BMC is still sponsoring him, but at least Floyd covered up the brand name. Heh.

photo © Michael Sampiano

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/18/07

Kicking him while he's down, Patrik Sinkewitz was informed on his hospital bed, that he had tested positive for elevated testosterone in a sample taken over a month ago. While recovering from a broken nose and missing teeth, his immediate reaction was "Me? Why me? I don't know anything about it. This can't be. I am due to have an operation and I can't think about it now." That doesn't sound like the reaction of a guilty man. In addition to Floyd Landis' well-publicized defense against testosterone doping, we have Italian Marco Fertonani protesting his adverse analytical finding from the same French lab that Landis claims botched his tests. We don't have any word yet which lab handled Sinkewitz's out of competition sample, but it would be another blow to WADA's credibility if the sample were handled at the former LNDD. German TV coverage halted their productions in protest, at least for today's stage.

Mean Drunk Prevention

How do you keep a mean drunk from exercising his belligerence? According to a new study, keep him distracted. Alcohol definitely impairs cognitive abilities, so getting the aggressive drunk to split his attention between a possible fight and getting him to repeat the batting stats of his favorite baseball player seems to be the way to go, at least for young Kentucky dudes.

Disappearing Bees?

With all those reports of bee colonies disappearing, maybe they should have checked this guy's house. Incidently, after visiting an orchard recently which uses their own bees for pollinating, the staff there said they had no problems with their hives. But they have heard of the reports, and check on the bees periodically.

Islamic Political Correctness in Darfur Report

In a bit of good news for drought stricken Sudan, the AP report still injects some prevailing narratives to blame the genocide on "root causes" as opposed to an Islamist civil war, with African tribes rebelling against the Arab supported government in Khartoum imposing sharia law. While many regional conflicts can be complicated by competition for resources, do we really believe that muslim militias will stop killing infidels if given the choice to go back to farming? The only whiff in the story that there is an Islam component to the Darfur atrocities lies in this single sentence: "The Darfur conflict began in February 2003, when African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-led Khartoum government." Neglect and discrimination by an Arab-led government? Whatever could that mean?

Nom du Ninja

Meh. Slow news day. So while I'm more preoccupied with getting my bike repaired and the outstanding alpine stage in the Tour de France, you know what that means. Wait, you don't know what that means? Ask a ninja! And today, ask about his name!

"Literacy changes the whole game. Just ask some medieval serfs."

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/17/07

T-Mobile's woes continued in the Alps, after losing three riders on the previous stage. Sprinter Mark Cavendish abandoned, then Michael Rogers also quit after dislocating his shoulder in that horrendous crash that flipped David Arroyo into the brush, and much later, Patrik Sinkewitz as well. He collided with a spectator on a downhill going back to his hotel after the stage finish, breaking his nose and losing several teeth, with the spectator being airlifted off the mountain. Today, Marcus Burghardt collided with a dog crossing the street. Neither he, nor the dog were injured in the crash, but it's amazing to see the effect a yellow Labrador can have on a carbon wheel.

Look at the front wheel just crack in half!


And here's the dog, none the worse for wear, joining his owner.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/16/07

After Levi Leipheimer finished yesterday's tough mountain stage, he found out he was penalized 10 seconds for pulling on his team car after he had to switch to his spare bike. At the time, it appeared as if the mechanic riding in the car was adjusting his bike seat, his elbow was planted squarely in the middle of Leipheimer's back. It seemed to me that Johan Bruyneel was pulling out all of his dirty cagefighter tricks to get Levi back into the group of favorites, and gambled on the pull. Levi hopes ten seconds won't make that much of a difference adding, "but if I hadn't gotten back, it would have made a bigger difference."

Steal Copper or Die Trying

In another chapter of the heavy metal theft chronicles, a man died trying to steal copper from power transmission lines, and authorities found the body strung up in the wires. Perhaps the poor idiots who concocted this scheme should have followed the french dudes by going after telecom cables, or already downed powerlines.

Thanks to the bro.

The Global War on Cyberterror?

I really wish there were one. A story from Forbes shows how truly worldwide are spam sources and malware writers. From Beijing, the top source for malware infected zombies, to Poland, where one ISP is responsible for fully 5 percent of spam worldwide, the biggest obstacle to fighting cybercrime is not the availability of resources from policing agencies. It's a lack of international cooperation, via treaties, diplomacy, or perhaps even governmental complicity. As one cybersecurity expert puts it, "The big problem here is political. It’s sovereignty." I won't hold my breath for the United Nations to focus on this issue.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/15/07

Today was a tough day in the alps because of the three big climbs in a row towards the end of the race. But in addition to the carnage to the overall standings that this stage exacted, there was the carnage done to the bodies of the fallen riders. It's not just the climbs that get you, but also the descents. The most unfortunate crash happened to T-Mobile's captain, Michael Rogers, and Caisse d'Epargne's David Arroyo. Rogers crashed into the barrier, which injured him enough that he later abandoned the race. Arroyo took the more dramatic approach and tumbled over the wall and into the brush, climbing his way out and onto his spare bike. That particular descent also took out Team CSC's Stuart O'Grady, who was loaded into an ambulance with a neck brace. Team Discovery Channel's Director Johan Bruyneel shared his own story of the descent from the top of Cormet de Roselend, and the same bend where Rogers and Arroyo crashed. He actually landed in a tree and had to figure out how to climb down and rejoin the race.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/14/07

Today marked the real beginning of the Tour de France, since the course was the Tour's entry into the alps. On a stage like tomorrow, where there are 3 Category 1 (most difficult) climbs in succession, cyclists can output up to 9,000 calories. You'd only have to eat three Tony Roma's onion loaves (2900 calories each) to keep the body going, but obviously a pro athletes is not going to eat that stuff while riding a bike. Usually, it's lots of energy bars and gels, along with their sports drinks. But sometimes, if your team director likes junk food, he can share a slice of pizza as you pass the team car.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/13/07

How much of a rockstar in Belgium is sprinting specialist and former world champion Tom Boonen? Enough of one that the peloton gently ribs him about the techno song Virtual Zone recorded titled Tommeke Tom Boonen. The YouTube clip to the left just has the song playing on it. The relevant bit, starting with Tom speaking Flemish, is about halfway through. I, of course, have already downloaded the mp3.

Do-it-yourself Helmety Goodness

With the series finale of Red vs. Blue a couple of weeks ago, I've been worried about finding new material to fill up the Helmety Goodness Fridays slot. Hopefully, I will not become as desperate as one of the cast members...

"Luckily, while we were talking right now, I learned how to fly. Watch me."

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/12/07

Normally, I don't like going back to the same interview subject too many times, because I like to mix things up. However, our friendly Utah native from Team CSC just provides so many tidbits on life away from the bike during the Tour de France, I had to share his insights again. Like describing his two star youth hostel, the boring food, and how much he pays attention to detail when he looks at the course map.

Moley, Moley, Moley!

So, will my bro appear younger longer than me? Apparently so. Actually, the study linked the presence of moles anywhere on the body to having longer telomeres, which have been associated with a younger biological age. Sorry, ladies, adding a beauty mark to your face might only make you look younger if it serves to distract from some other shortcoming.

Do I have something on my face?

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/11/07

The first week of the Tour de France is not only known for crashes and stupid tactics among riders in the breakaway, but it's also when the riders' bodies are still adjusting their metabolisms to match their caloric and fluid intake with their power output. In the second and third weeks, you don't hear much about "natural breaks," except for individual riders getting caught out of the peloton, but in the first week, everyone takes advantage of the pitstop.

photo: Graham Watson

The Angriest Nintendo Gamer

Here's a little shout out to my console gaming homies! Content warning (NSFW): a lot of scatalogical and biologically impossible expletives hilariously strung together.

"It's just a bunch of poopy diarrhea doodoo ass sh*t."

Metal Worth More Than The Coin

I've been writing a lot about metal theft being driven by world metal prices. In India, this crime wave has officially jumped the shark. Indian coins are being smuggled across Bangladesh's border to be melted down to make razor blades. A one rupee coin's actual worth is 35 rupees because up to 6 razor blades can be made from the one coin. It's gotten so bad in one border town, that local shops have resorted to using rupees made of cardboard because of the scarcity of coins. The metal in money is now worth more than the money. Amazing.

via GeekPress

Solar Cycle Hit Piece

Reuters reports on a new study claiming that recent solar activity is not responsible for the rapid global warming in the last twenty years. However, warmening biases abound as we see AGW skeptics described as a "dwindling group [that] pins the blame on natural variations in the climate system, or a gradual rise in the sun's energy output." Of course, there is no evidence presented to bolster this dwindling numbers claim. In fact, there is a growing record of skeptics breaking their silence.

Warmening credentials are also established in the previous sentence: "Most scientists say emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, are the prime cause of the current warming trend."

Curiously, the report highlights the statistical analysis of the data, mentioning that they were "smoothed to take account of the 11-year sunspot cycle," but doesn't explain why the scientists would do that, or even which dataset they are analyzing. This appears to be a sly resurrection of the discredited "hockey stick" which had claimed a rapid rise in warming using shaky temperature proxies and shakier computer models. Again, I have to stress, model outputs are predictions based on hypotheses, not data.

Also, the report misrepresents solar variability theories on warming, which claim that peak solar output in the 1970's is related to a twenty year, or so, warming process of the oceans, which then affects mean global surface air temperature. Sad attempt, really.

Update: Thanks to commenter JC, who snagged a PDF of the actual paper in the Reuters story, we learned that solar cycle over the last twenty years was compared to the GISS (Goddard Institute Surface Stations) temperature reconstruction. The researchers employed a "running mean" statistical analysis on both the most recent solar irradiance data and the GISS to tease out any correlation. After removing the 11 year curve, interestingly, the researchers found an overall, yet slight, downward trend in solar output during this time frame. Why that is strange, is because only three years ago, NASA teased out an increasing trend with their analysis. Well, the minimum for sunspot activity just ended earlier this year, so the data in Lockwood's paper are the latest. Other researchers are definitely going to look at the statistical analysis, because Lockwood and Frohlich applied a variable cycle length formula to the running mean analysis. The sun's 11 year cycle isn't exactly 11 years, but variable as well, so other solar experts will want to make sure the downward trend isn't an artifact. This really is a big blow against the solar forcing crowd for climate change because a downward trend with rising temperatures doesn't make much sense. Regarding the lag in their theories, I've seen it as little as two years when tied to sunspots, 4 to 5 years when tied to the hydrological cycle in North America, and as many as 10 (or 20) when there was close association with sunspot activity and the temperature record before 1940. A twenty year downward trend "outlives" all those lag timeframes, at least with the simplistic formulations they present right now. That American Thinker piece might be on to something, if Merrifield can get his math right and add up all the solar cycles together to show why a pretty flat solar irradiance trend now still means a global mean temperature increase.

Problems with this perceived downward trend are the observed increases in solar irradiance detected on Mars and Neptune. Astronomers are going to be busy trying to discount lower albedos (reflectivity) on those respective planets' surfaces as the source of the higher reflected output. Heh. As long as these scientists keep tying their research to climate change, the funding will keep coming.

Fake Cop Arrested

Whoops! I bet he learned his lesson. Makes you wonder what he did with the fake badge and fake police car lights...

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/10/07

Dave Zabriskie, American rider on Team CSC, is not only known as having the lowest aerodynamic profile among active riders, but for having a laconic, dry wit, which is drawn from his native Utah upbringing. How dry is his humor? Listen to how he explains what causes all the nervousness and crashes in the first week of the Tour de France: "It's not nerves. It's just too many guys think they can win."

Metal Theft Goes Political

In yet another story about copper theft, this time from a construction site, a Texas state lawmaker confronted the thieves, wounding one of them in the leg. The story, and Instapundit, stress the irony of the lawmaker voting against a bill that protected his right to defend his property with deadly force. I found it cool that even a Texas democrat has a concealed-carry permit for his handgun. But I wonder if the lawmaker might also become a champion for increasing the scrutiny that scrap metal buyers must give to metal sellers. Ten states have laws on the books for dealing with keg thefts to take advantage of high prices in the industrial metal market, but it may be time to broaden those laws to cover cable and wiring as well.

Undead Not So Dead in China

Chinese censorship is insidious and pervasive. So much so, that the chinese servers for World of Warcraft have patched the game so that skeletons have been zombified, and dead bodies on the ground have been changed to grave markers.

Over to the left, you see what a skeleton is supposed to look like. I'm not quite sure what the communist social mores have against some walking bones, because I think rotting flesh is a little more objectionable, but they claim "It's to promote a healthy and harmonious on-line environment." Sure, nevermind the bloodspatters and demon killing. Healthy, right? Because killing little beasties online helps to build a nice, harmonious environment. There must be some cultural objection to the walking undead. Perhaps promoting the idea of an afterlife in a publically accessible game? I guess even the Chinese government has learned the art of corporate doublespeak to explain their reasons for censorship.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/9/07

The Tour de France lands in Ghent, Belgium today, and with the stage win going Gert Steegmans, and Tom Boonen gathering enough points to take the sprinter's jersey by one point, these two Belgians made for a crazy celebration in the already cycling crazy town. There is a museum of sorts at a local bike shop of the models of bicycles ridden during the Tour's long history. Take a look at this vintage racer:

Photo ©: Bjorn Haake / Cyclingnews.com

Note the gear cassette on the back wheel: only one gear. Most bikes on the Tour today have either 20 or 30 gears. Racers back the early days of the tour would ride that one gear except for the climbs. When they got to the bottom of climb, they would stop, whip out the wrench they all carried in their back pocket, remove the gear, and reinstall it backwards for their "climbing" gear. They would have to do reverse the process once they got to the top of the mountain. There were no support cars back then either. The sport has evolved, to say the least.

Reduce Cow Indigestion, Save The Planet

From the country that has advocated deforestation to reduce global warming, we now are presented with the idea of genetically modifying cattle feed to reduce belching, a primary source of methane, a much more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The main advocate for switching to legumes made very sure to call his research "plant breeding" as opposed to GM crops. I'm actually looking forward to the ongoing clashes between the "established" environmental groups, such as those opposed to deforestation and GM food, begin to clash with the upstart climate change youngsters. Also, articles like this need to disclose who funds these researchers, like they do for the drug companies publishing their studies. Otherwise, how would we know the motivations of these other companies who plan on conning governments out of their tax dollars by burying carbon dioxide under the sea floor? It's time for full disclosure for the green industry.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/8/07

Coverage of time trials in cycling usually focus on the funky aerodynamic helmets the riders wear. The riders usually end up looking like the Alien from those sci-fi movies starring Sigourney Weaver. But with the first two stages in Britain for this year's Tour de France, there are some other funky helmets worn along the route.

photo by: Casey B. Gibson

Photo ©: Fotoreporter Sirotti

Spray Coffee?

In a fun little article, the Bradenton Herald gives a short history of all the other things Tropicana tried to sell over the years besides orange juice. From spaghetti sauce to a failed carbonated fruit juice, it seems that Tropicana was unafraid to go where the market led them. But was the market really ready for aerosol canned coffee? Not really.

Some say Rossi [Anthony Rossi, Tropicana's founder] was ahead of his time with a brewed coffee that was packaged in a spray can.

"We had a very delicious liquid coffee in a push-button can," remembered retired company executive John Ogilby. "The only problem was at the end of the can it would spurt all over the place, so he (Rossi) cut it out."

"The cleaning bills just ruined us," remembered Hamrick [David Hamrick, retired executive]. "People that would get coffee all over them on the last cup."

These days, we have Starbucks cold coffee in a can, along with all sorts of caffeinated energy drinks, so I don't think Tropicana can jump back into a glutted market. But with just the right gimmick, maybe another culture can show us the way. A culture that, apparently has no fear in making juice out of anything, or putting that anything in a can. Like putting hot coffee in a can! Are we ready for it?

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/7/07

People are making a big deal about how there is no bib number 1 being worn on the Tour route for the first time in history. Usually, last year's winner gets to wear number 1, and the rest of his team is numbered through 9. Or, if last year's winner is not riding, then his old team gets numbered 1 through 9. However, last year's winner and his team are both not riding, and that has never happened in Tour history either. Lesser known, this is the second year in a row that the number 2 has not been on the course. But that's not really true. It's just a database hiccup for the Tour's website, because you can find how Number 2 did last year right here.

Transformers Geek Out, The Revenge, er Review

I just saw this movie, and yes, Michael Bay messed this up. Just wait for the DVD. Then you'll be able to take bathroom breaks whenever you want, you can actually stop and rewind the fighting sequences to find out when Optimus Prime whipped out that big ass bayonet to slice up a made-up Decepticon ninja-style, and fast-forward through every useless scene with Anthony Anderson in it. And I do mean every scene. The military came off looking good, but you'll still have to wait for the DVD to find any homage to the original cartoon's theme song. Michael Bay and Steven Spielberg seem to hate fans of source material. At least Peter Cullen, who was on the original animated series, did Optimus Prime's voice, but Hugo Weaving was unrecognizable as Megatron. If you were going to process his voice that much, you could have saved some dough and gotten someone cheaper. And Starscream's voice did not have that annoying scratchiness. Oh well, I only paid matinee prices to temporarily lose my hearing from all that clanking metal. Expect the DVD specials to crow about the sound effects: "We just took some old railroad tracks and hammered the sh*t out of 'em!" And there were plot holes big enough to drive a, hmm, an Optimus Prime through. No real room for a sequel, so I can wait another twenty years to see the next ruination of my childhood memories.

Keg Deposit To Triple In Michigan: UPDATED

In another chapter of the Heavy Metal Theft Chronicles, Michigan is set to raise the 10 dollar deposit for returning the keg, to 30 dollars. The reason: a steep rise in keg theft to sell the stainless steel for scrap. Here's the amazing thing I found in the article: "Stainless steel was worth about 25 cents a pound late in 2005, but fetched about $1.75 per pound in early May." Holy crap! Two years ago, a thirty pound keg would only return $7.50 at the scrap yard. In 2007, you can get up to $52.50! Hell yeah, I want my 40 dollar profit! It really does make sense to raise the deposit to deter the keg theft. When discussing this story, the bro added his personal anecdotes of seeing abandoned furniture on the streets being stripped of their springs. At almost 2 dollars a pound, that's at least a bottomless cup of coffee at any diner. Is this a heavy metals bubble in the market, or is there going to be a crash soon? I think the business section of our media should start paying attention to this, because when we have Europeans stealing train tracks and telephone lines right off the bridges and poles, and we have people in America breaking into telecom garages to steal spools of cable, there is something going on in the market.

Update: After Michigan's keg deposit raise went into effect, the AP covered the costs distributors are incurring because of keg theft. Ten states so far have even passed legislation requiring ID checks for selling kegs to scrap metal yards. One reason given for the high metal prices is the spike in construction in growing economies. But that cannot even justify the theft of brass plates on a war memorial in Guam. Hopefully, who ever receives the stolen metal will feel some island pride and report the would-be sellers. (h/t to the bro for the Guam story)

Helmety Apartment Hunting

Shopping for space in high rise buildings is always brutal, but try worrying about snipers and rocket launchers in addition to the fierce competitive bidding. That adds a little bit more excitement to your property tour, don't you think?

"...and what's up with the hippo motif?"

Hostile Work Environment Is Not Sexist

Psychology Today has a top ten politically incorrect truths list about human nature. While many focus on the muslim suicide bomber stuff, I especially liked the tenth item on the list: Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist. The cited psychologist correctly dismisses the feminist view of sexual harrassment as all about power, when it is really using power to get sex. But my favorite line in the tenth section comes in when discussing the hostile work environment aspect of sexual harrassment.

Many women legitimately complain that they have been subjected to abusive, intimidating, and degrading treatment by their male coworkers. Browne points out that long before women entered the labor force, men subjected each other to such abusive, intimidating, and degrading treatment. [emph. added]

So, so true. The environment has also been called the "locker room mentality." That really is how a bunch of dudes act around each other. Just like the story concludes: "Men harass women precisely because they are not discriminating between men and women." Of course, we men should treat women as women, not as other men. That's really celebrating our differences. Grab-ass pranks don't go over that well when you try to include the new gal as "one of us."

via Ace

Web Clueless Judge Update

Remember that British judge who didn't know what website was? Well, it looks like starting from the basics helped him out in the end: Britain convicts its first online-terror culprits. Exit question - How much resistance did Younus Tsouli put up to get that grade-A beat down evident in the mugshot?

h/t to the bro for calling the jurist "the clueless UK intarweb judge."

iPhone Magic Tricks

I'm really posting this because it is slightly related to coffee. Still, this is an entertaining use of the video function on that sold out iPhone.

"It's my new iPhone. I'm gonna keep it."

via Geekscribe

Concrete Examples Of Bad Modeling

I may have to pick up this book: Useless Arithmetic; Why Environmental Scientists Can't Predict the Future. I have written many times on the over-reliance of models to describe chaotic systems (such as weather, climate, species migration), and to apply these models' outputs as facts, instead of possible hypotheses to experimentally verify. This book gives us details on the use of pseudo-science to bolster neo-religious environmentalist perspectives and policies. From the book jacket blurb:

The book offers fascinating case studies depicting how the seductiveness of quantitative models has led to unmanageable nuclear waste disposal practices, poisoned mining sites, unjustifiable faith in predicted sea level rise rates, bad predictions of future shoreline erosion rates, overoptimistic cost estimates of artificial beaches, and a host of other thorny problems. The authors demonstrate how many modelers have been reckless, employing fudge factors to assure "correct" answers and caring little if their models actually worked.

Maybe I'm optimistic, but this backlash against the environmental numbers game could lead to the environmental scientists actually doing science again, instead of playing at advocacy and policy debate.

via Climate Science

More Catgut Craziness

Toxoplasma gondii is back in the news, with another study confirming its association with psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia. An earlier study had linked the common cat parasite to increased incidences of neuroticism on a cultural and societal scale. That earlier study warned that "mass personality modification could result in cultural change." Too late, doctors, too late...

Update: We present a dissenting opinion...

Thomas Jefferson's Last Letter

In his last known letter, Thomas Jefferson declined an invitation to a celebration for the 50th anniversary of The Declaration of Independence due to poor health. However, his hopes and dreams for our young country still seemed to animate his writing:

May it [The United States of America] be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

That is still true for most of world, although the governments of some of our oldest allies seem to have forgotten what our "grand experiment" represents to most of the world's people: hope.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

via GeekPress

Transformers Geek Out

Warning: what follows may annoy, but will certainly reveal old-school geek cred.

The day has come. That Michael Bay Transformers movie is now in theaters, playing at a whopping 2 hours and 23 minutes. Now, I'm all about big robots throwing down, and, combined with my brothers, own 112 of these toys, but come on! Apparently too much time on flesh and blood and not enough time on Autobots and Decepticons. That's all fine, I guess. It's a director's prerogative to have characters that people can identify with and care about, and he picked a couple of teenagers to move the story along. But what if I want to identify with the Autobots? What about my needs? Thanks for nothing, Michael Bay.

Now here's where I really geek out... I can understand wanting to update the Transformers' looks and concepts. Making Starscream an F-22 Raptor, instead of the old F-15 Eagle, that makes sense. A few of the older bots don't have much relevance these days, like the Decepticon Soundwave and his underlings. Soundwave was a portable cassette recorder and he was the communications officer. His lieutenants were all minicassettes (sized properly too!). Well, in our iPod generation, that doesn't really work too well. Frenzy, who used to be one of those minicassettes couldn't exactly show up as an MP3 file, now could he? So Soundwave is out, and Frenzy shows up as a boombox. Eh. But my real beef is with the Autobot choices. Some of the old characters' vehicles are still around in updated versions, but noooo! The producers had to make a whole bunch of product placement agreements with GM. So now, Bumblebee, who used to be a VW Bug, appears as the new Camaro instead of a new VW Bug. And Jazz, who used to be a Porsche 911 with the racing kit, appears as a Pontiac Solstice. Here's how they're supposed to look:

Then there are the Autobot minivans. Yes, Autobots had Japanese minivans originally, so I totally understand getting rid of these cars. Ironhide is now a badass pickup truck. Fine with me. But Ratchet, instead of being an ambulance, is now a huge modified Hummer H2 labeled a search and rescue vehicle. Here's how Ratchet used to look:

And then they just made up a bunch of Decepticons besides Megatron, Starscream, and Frenzy. Great. Will I still see this movie? Yes. Will I sound like some crotchety fanboy while I wait in line for it? Yes. Will I tell people about my awesome cookie jar? Yes.

More than meets the eyes! I've got cookies!

Update: Soundwave responds to being left out of the movie!

"F*cking iPods!"

Anime Dance Off!

I haven't watched any of this anime Tenjo Tenge yet, so I have no idea what it's about. However, the opening sequence cracks me up every time I watch it. And this short video provides a head nod to the bro's college interests, which I hope produces all sorts of nostalgia.

"Bomb a head!"

Kurt Loder, MTV's News Curmudgeon

If you've been even remotely tempted to see Michael Moore's new documentary Sicko, all you have to do to quash those feelings is to read Kurt Loder's review of the film. Not only does Loder skewer Moore's self-serving tactics, he also presents counter commentary to the documentarian's glowing reviews of socialized medicine. Most enlightening was Loder's description of Cuba's "health tourism" in which the very best of Cuba's health care system is available for foreigners willing to pay for it, but which the average Cuban citizen does not have access. Read the whole thing.

via Ace

Beware The Pod People!

Brewster better watch out, because those Pod people just advanced their technology. They're not just dancing to Pods anymore, but also laughing to YouTube videos! Be afraid, very afraid.