Sports Illustrated: Lance Armstrong cleared of all doping charges

In August 2005, in a shameful breach of ethics, the French newspaper L’Equipe, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and Tour de France Director Jean-Marie Leblanc claimed Lance had failed 6 doping screens during the 1999 Tour de France. This news broke shortly after Lance’s record seventh straight Tour win and his subsequent retirement. L’Equipe went so far as to write, months before Lance’s final race, that, “Never has an athlete’s retirement been so welcome.” Today, Sports Illustrated is running a story today that Lance has been completely exonerated of doping charges, and that a tribunal should be formed to probe legal and ethical violations by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Link: Top 10 cross-cultural gaffes

This article was written for travelers working in aviation, but it applies to anyone going abroad. Remember the one about revealing the sole of your shoe is a grave insult in Arabic cultures? It’s in there, along with nine others.

“Constitution? Bill of Rights? What Bill of Rights?”

I have watched with growing anxiety the erosion of civil rights in the USA over the last 20 years. I first became aware of it when Mr. Nixon used the office of the president to wage a personal war on his enemies, such as John Lennon. Today, Mr. Bush the younger makes Mr. Nixon look like an amateur. So I was indignant, after all that’s happened to our freedoms in the name of the “Global War on Terrorism,” to learn that our Congress is rallying around Representative William Jefferson, who was videotaped accepting a $100,000 bribe, and whose office was recently searched, eight months after being subpoenaed, which Mr. Jefferson ignored, and with a warrant, which is more than millions of American phone users are getting. It seems that when American citizen’s rights are violated, it’s not Congress’ problem. When a Congressperson’s rights are violated, Congress is ready to fight. I was very disappointed that no media outlet noticed that. Until today.

2006- Ride #6 21.1 miles, 123.7 total

A somewhat extended ride through Carlisle & Concord, with a twist.

Time-lapse movie of Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 73P moving through the sky

In one of my recent Observation Logs, I wrote that I could actually see the comet moving over the space of five minutes or so. Now, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) makes it even easier to see.

Whoops! I didn’t mention that I could see it could moving. Well, I could! Pretty cool movie, huh?

Interactive 360° panoramas from around the world

A very impressive site, with a good variety of pictures. Broadband and QuickTime required.

What fascinated me was…. how can you look down without seeing the camera tripod?

For DirecTV subscribers: Free Total Choice Premiere for three days, May 19-21 2006

Free Total Choice Premiere includes HBO, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, Showtime, the Starz Super Pack, and the Sports Pack. It’s pretty much everything they offer (for $99 a month) except Pay-Per-View. Here’s a discussion of the free weekend.

I will never watch another Tom Cruise movie again

It’s not the couch-jumping thing—that was charming in its spontaneity. No, it takes a special kind of arrogance, of intolerance, to appear on the Today Show to promote your movie, and patronize your host with statements like, “Here’s the problem. You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.” Missed it on TV? Watch it now.

SETI is more expensive than I thought!

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog: I used to run distributed-computing projects on my Macs. There wasn’t any noticeable problem using my computers, but it was costing over $30 a month in electricity.

Information and Web Sites for New or Curious Observers!

What’s in the sky tonight? What’s coming up? How can I find the planets? What can I expect to see? Here are links to the places I go to learn.