Today’s ATC (Audio Link) turned me on to a new book alleging that Lance Armstrong used performance enhancing drugs at least during his ’99 run at le Tour. (More at Cycling News and VeloNews ; also see the end of the 14 June DrunkCyclist entry – definitely NSFW)
I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but there is the issue that the book’s been published in the UK and France. Both of those countries have much less libel protection than the US (ie, easier for wronged parties to get restitution), and the allegations come from a close aide to the Postal team, and one of Armstrong’s teammates.
Looks like more folks yelling “Dopé“while Armstrong’s headed up l’Alpe
When Snopes is too afraid to handle a truly controversial issue, The Straight Dope is brave enough to take up the slack. Por ejemplo, this in-depth study of how long the power grid will survive after society’s zombification.
Q: After watching Dawn of the Dead [ a fine zombie flick, btw], I am left to wonder about one thing: If we were to suffer an apocalypse where most of the living became flesh-eating zombies, how long, assuming I survived, would I continue to receive hydroelectricity from my power company? …
A: … How long the power supply would last in the most critical zombie situation depends on two key factors – first, how long a given power plant can operate without human intervention, and second, how long before enough power plants fail to bring down the entire transmission grid. I’ll ignore the side issues of whether the zombies would want to try to run the power plant themselves, or if they would be a union or non-union shop. …
This note from my favorite degenerate blogger today:
Scott Stapp wants strip clubs to stop playing his songs. man, that makes two of us. nothing kills your buzz faster than getting a lappy while Stapp belts out “Can you take me HIGHER?” on the house speakers, trust you me.
I had to save this one for posterity. Be sure to check out the bidding page, too.
I bet that final bid was from a Salt Lake City address.
Finally, a textbook quality approach to shooting rubber bands.
Because of a serious lack in government funding on topics such as the Study of the History of Rubber Band Shooting, not much is known about this yet compelling field. If you need to take a class to keep your GPA up, you’ve found your course.
The core of this instruction is Delivery Methods covering methods like Pistol and Sniper Rifle plus it provides statistics on Speed, Longevity, Range and Accuracy for each method.
So wrong, and yet so funny.
Bush/Zombie Reagan: Putting the Voodoo Back in Voodoo Economics
Thanks to Christian
Today’s reason: birds of a feather.
More information is being released about the Enron scandal today. Most of the public will probably focus on the statistics suggesting that Enron swindled the citizens of California out of $1.1 billion, but what strikes me in this news is the “colorful names” the traders gave the schemes they used in this scam. A company with disgustingly close ties to the POTUS, Majority Whip Tom DeLay and a large number of other Texas politicians employs the kind of people that would use an inappropriate sexual term that is only slightly worse than the punishment I think these people deserve.
The documents released by the utility provide new insight into schemes designed by Enron traders and given colorful names like “Donkey Punch,” “Ping Pong,” “Sidewinder” and “Russian Roulette.” Many of the schemes had come to light over the past two years as federal and state regulators investigated why electricity prices rose so high, so fast during 2000-01, when California first deregulated the state’s power market — and fought over whether state consumers deserve money back.
Free markets are a great idea, except when the people running them either (a) aren’t intelligent enough to draw the connection between price gouging and the ills of society, or (b) simply don’t care about anything but their profits. Considering the base nature of their terminology, I have to believe the latter is more applicable to these criminals.
They say bad news comes in threes – Last week it was RWR who kicked off.
This week: Page 2 columnist Ralph Wiley one of the keys to the appeal of page 2 and ESPN.com in general, has gone to the luxury box in the sky
He will be missed.