TDF 2007 (Le Sigh)

I was heartbroken to read yesterday's press release on the TDF website:

The organisers of the Tour de France have been informed by Marc Biver, the manager of the Astana team, about the positive test of Alexandre Vinokourov on the day of the time trial stage in Albi. At the request of Patrice Clerc, President of A.S.O., the Astana team has agreed to leave the 2007 Tour de France.

Bicycling.com had a little more analysis:

So much for dreams of a clean sport. After winning two spectacular stages, Kazakhstan's Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood transfusion today.

...

[Tour Director] Prudhomme was even more emotional. "This is proof that the actual system doesn't work. And we don't want this system any more."

In a blanket statement that seemed to target the ability of the International Cycling Union to govern the sport he continued, "A system that doesn't defend the world's greatest cycling race, doesn't work. The future of cycling is through the Tour de France. What other event can bring together so many fans? But the system doesn't work any more. Reform of the system is impossible...only revolution will change the system. We must explode the system."

The "system." The "system" is a fucking joke. We have no final decision yet on Landis, even, and that was the 2006 Tour! Nothing's working, people are still doping, and the testers and their gestapo techniques aren't catching people. Not to mention the lab is leaking results to newpapers before actually telling the competitors! Yeah, we need to reform the "system." I love cycling. I love to do it, I love to watch it on TV, I love the strategy of the stage races, and I get goosebumps whenever I see footage of the peloton streaking along the countryside. And I'm really sad to say that the sport is going to slowly wither away and die if the whole culture doesn't change. It's no longer a matter of more inspections, or more testing, or more penalties. What we have to do now is change the culture, make it not "normal" to dope, make it not something "everyone does."

I hope Vino loves his sport enough to be honest, cop to his offense, and help root out the problem. I don't want to listen to him deny and deny and listen to the lab claim and claim and listen to his science experts say "oh the lab did it all wrong" and have another fucking YEAR of arbitration! Everyone's sick of this. Nobody's going to care soon. Cycling will steadily lose fans and supporters and advertisers. And a sport with no fans is dead.

Additional reading:
Trust but Verify -- mainly about Floyd Landis.

Boulder Report blog by Joe Lindsey:

ETA this quote: The Tour de France is breaking down as well – a great event brought to its knees by people who are so beyond selfish, so willfully arrogant that they would risk the destruction of the most beautiful sport in the world for their own vain glory. It is absolutely toxic to the sport – it’s impossible for fans to cheer on riders while simultaneously wondering which of them will test positive and get kicked out for cheating.

Emphasis mine. That sums it up perfectly.

L'Equipe (en francais).

Cycling News

Tripoli 6 Free!

The Bulgarian nurses (and one doctor) insansely accused of infecting Libyan kids with AIDS have been freed! This is good news for them, but there should be some concern that no medical volunteers in their right mind will ever set foot in Libya again. The willingness of the people of Libya and their government to ignore sound science and act irrationally may have profound implications for their medical establishment (such as it is). It's clear from the evidence that the Libyan medical establishment has very little ability to control the spread of bloodborne pathogens, and they're now unlikely to recieve any help to fix it; the only outcome will be even MORE children avoidably infected with serious illnesses. I wonder who they'll blame then?

For those of you who are not familiar with the story, here's a rundown.

September 2006, from Pharyngula:

Six Bulgarian medical professionals (five nurses and one doctor) were working at the al-Fateh Children's Hospital in Banghazi, Libya in the late 1990s. A year later, about 400 children were diagnosed with HIV; the doctors and nurses were accused of conspiring with Israel and the USA to intentionally infect children with the disease, and were thrown into jail.

Five years later — five years spent in a Libyan jail, where they were tortured with electric shocks and beatings, and two of the nurses were raped! — defenders were able to show that the children were largely victims of HIV exposure prior to the arrival of the accused, and that the real culprit was a policy of poorly trained staff, unsterilized equipment, and generally shoddy hygiene. It didn't matter; they were convicted in a sham trial, and sentenced to death by firing squad.

December 2006, from Effect Measure:

...this is also a science story, or, more properly, a story where science that could have exonerated the defendants has been ignored, resulting in a trial which was neither fair nor impartial. That science has now appeared, appropriately, in Nature, the world's most prestigious scientific journal. An exhaustive analysis of the HIV and Hepatitis C sequences from virus isolated from 44 of the children finds the "strains were already circulating and prevalent in the [al-Fateh Hospital] and its environs before the arrival in March 1998" of the defendants.

May 2007, from Orac:

Now, five months after their being sentenced to death, the international dance by which Bulgaria and Palestine are trying to prevent their citizens from being executed and Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi is trying to find a face-saving way out of this despite the parents who, despite the obvious kangaroo court and scientific analyses strongly indicating that the strain of HIV that infected the children were already prevalent in the hospital before the workers ever arrived and thus supporting the innocence of the Tripoli Six, want their blood, it appears that there may be movement towards a deal...

I have no real objection to this:

Your Score: Smartass

You are 85% Rational, 85% Extroverted, 85% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.

You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and arrogant. In fact, you could very well be the anti-Christ, as you are almost the exact opposite of everything Jesus was supposed to be. While Jesus says love your enemy, you say love beating the crap out of your enemy. While Jesus raises the dead, you raise hell. While Jesus walks on water, you tend to sink. You probably consider people who are emotional and gentle to be big pussies who are obviously in lesser stature than you. You have many flaws, despite your seeming intelligence and cool-headedness. For instance, you aren't very nice. In fact, you're probably an asshole. And you are conceited and self-centered. Not only that, but you are very loud and vocal about all this, seeing as how you are extroverted. There is no better way to describe you than as a "smartass", I'm afraid. Perhaps just "ass" would do, too. But that's a little less literary and descriptive. At any rate, your main personality defect is the fact that you are self-centered, mean, uncaring, and brutally logical.

To put it less negatively:

1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive.

2. You are more EXTROVERTED than introverted.

3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle.

4. You are more ARROGANT than humble.

Compatibility:

Your exact opposite is the Emo Kid.

Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Capitalist Pig, the Braggart, and the Sociopath.



Seems about right, eh?

Google fun

Just so you all know, it's not just hookers who can have "a heart of gold." The following items turned up in a google search* for the phrase "with a heart of gold." Enjoy.

con man, gangster, city, aeronaut, slacker, poem, guide dogs, exotic dancer, jerk, doctor, thug, monk, luddite, space hooker, drag queen, brass baron (??), single mum, tapori (???), rabble rouser, jewler, tart (the food), trucking company, chinese cuisine, cafe, soldier, irish angel, bioassay, transistor, truth-telling anti-hero asshole, evil genius, mathematical lady, atm, beer man, fashion miner (?), regal ambassador, lady in blue, man of steel, hit man, animal lover, frog, border collie, glitzy film festival, wrecking ball, bibliophile, gangst_ress_, snob, steelmaker, shock jock, 6-fingered man, mayor, hoofer, stripper, tartan noir (?), car theif, pungent bulb (what?), tin can, athletic grad student, bank



Yes, pungent bulb.




*Yes, I should probably be working. What's your point? Why are you reading this instead of working, anyway?! Get back to work you slacking slackers!