Sports are supposed to be pure-that’s why there are rules and referees; that’s why the first Olympians competed in the nude. It’s also the reason that the federal government is spending millions and millions of dollars investigating a famous cyclist who has, after a decade of denials and countless drug tests, returned to the center of sports scandal. It must be summer, since Lance and doping have returned to the national discussion.

It’s only natural that when we discover our heroes have injected chemicals into their veins for a competitive edge (and I’m not saying Lance has, only that it’s looking increasingly difficult for him to prove that he hasn’t) we find them tainted and strip them of medals and put an asterisk by their names. Doping is ugly for fans but it goes beyond betrayal. Performance enhancers turn a contest between athletes into a competition among scientists and engineers. This is the best argument against enhancers. It’s also the best argument for them.

Let’s pretend, for a minute, that a separate league exists. Let’s call it the Asterisk League or, better, the League of Extraordinary Medicine. Drugs are legal but regulated. Athletes get educated about the risks, long term and short, of everything they introduce into-or onto-their bodies. Fans know exactly who is taking what and tracking their performance accordingly. Labs and scientists are inexorably linked to athletes’ rise and fall. Chemist versus chemist doesn’t sound like it would make great television, but the field would quickly advance to the point were records were broken daily and feats of crazy strength became the norm. Chemist versus chemist would become superhuman versus superhuman. Broadcasts could include expert scientists in the booth describing the limits of the human body and how these chemical enhancements get around that, or don’t. The League of Extraordinary Medicine is more honest, its regulation more sensible, since outlawing drugs just does not work-we’ve got a forever War on Drugs to prove it. And our tests for drugs still aren’t very good……

Read the full story at Popular Science

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For people who frequent this sight… you might see more engineering items on the blog now that i’m attempting the whole ‘iron ring’ thing.

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You should watch this in HD if you can – epic.

Speedriding in the area of Wengen, Switzerland.

Co-pilot Jokke Sommer ( http://www.youtube.com/jokkesommer )
Music: Mirwais – Disco Science
Category: Sports

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It was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse- sized tazer.

The effects of the tazer were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety – god forbid she would have to use it.

WAY TOO COOL ! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home.. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button and pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I’d get the blue arc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs.

AWESOME!!!

Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Meghan what that burn spot is on the face of the microwave.

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn’t be all that bad with only two little triple-A batteries, right?

There I sat in my recliner, my roommates cat Gracie looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target.

I must admit I thought about zapping Gracie (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet cat, not that I’m much of a cat person but, if I was going to give this thing to my girlfriend to protect herself against a bad guy, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of board shorts and  a t-shirt with my sunglasses perched on the top of my head, directions in one hand, and the little tazer in another.

The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water.

Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring about 5″ long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ‘no possible way… I’m 6’3” and pushing 190lbs… how could two little batteries do anything more than give me a little sting’

What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my best.. .?

I’m sitting there alone, Gracie looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ‘don’t do it dumbass,’ reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that bad.

I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and .. .

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Dwayne Johnson (a.k.a. The Rock)  ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again.

I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet with sweat, drool pouring down my cheek, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs?

The cat was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a tazer, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself!

You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.. A three second burst would be considered conservative?

IT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape.

My cracked Oakley sunglasses were on the other side of the room. The recliner I was in was now upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching feverishly. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling.

I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair.

I’m still looking for my nuts and I’m offering a significant reward for their safe return!

P.S… My girlfriend, who can’t stop laughing about my experience, loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!  and I learned that no matter how small the batteries… ya….. I think you know what I mean.

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For anyone knows about the Tour and wants to have a little fun.  Its a great way to potential win some sweet gear and give to a great scholarship.

This contest used to be run to raise money for the endowment fund for the Jason Lapierre Scholarship.  Since we have reached our endowment fund goal we are looking for a new organization to raise funds for.  100% of the entry fees will still be going towards a worthy endowment, the choice of the pool winner.  In the past, we have been able to raise approximately $700 to $800 from this pool.

Rules:

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gene therapy

Dreams of Olympic glory could make athletes risk their lives on an experimental procedure

Steroids seem so last-decade, now that gene therapy has caught the eye of athletes looking for a competitive edge. But scientists warn that gene therapy still represents a high-risk, experimental practice even within medicine, and that athletes could endanger their lives by giving it a try.

Gene therapy has shown promise in a few treatments by helping swap out defective genes or changing the degree to which genes turn on and off. For instance, it has helped establish some immune system function in so-called “bubble children.” But researchers have become extra cautious with gene therapy ever since the death of 18-year-old Jesse Gelsinger during a 1999 research trial.

Unsurprisingly, the practice has been banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency that regulates sports. But experts writing in the journal Science fear that gene therapy may still tempt athletes eager to duck the stringent drug testing at events such as the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

A German coach and a Chinese lab have already been flagged for trying to obtain gene delivery treatments that boost erythropoietin (EPO) production. EPO leads to a surge in red blood cells that carry oxygen in the human body, and has become somewhat of an item among endurance sports athletes. Doping tests can still pick up on signs of the gene therapy if they are done soon enough.

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Monday – The Setup

The whole thing started when my plane landed in Los Angeles on Monday afternoon at 2:55pm coming from Cabo San Lucas. The guy sitting next to me on the plane asked me to loan him a pen so that he could fill out his customs form. I watched him fill out the form and clearly remember his birth year of 1984, but am a bit unsure about his name. I think it was —–, but in this story, we will refer to him as Pinche.

How It Was Lost

Seating on the plane

As we were about to disembark from the plane, I sent my friend Ramiro a text saying that I will be out of customs in about 30 minutes. I placed my phone back in my right pocket. I was sitting in seat 27A, next to the window, and Pinche was sitting in seat 27B. When it came time to move into the aisle, an old lady sitting in 27C started moving and so I stopped, but Pinche saw this as an opportunity. He bumped me, then jumped in front of the old lady and ran off of the plane. I waited for the old lady to step into the aisle, and I walked behind her. Five seconds later, I reached for my phone and it was not in my pocket anymore. I waited for everyone to exit the plane and went back to my seat. I looked everywhere but was not able to find the phone. One of the flight attendants (Karen) offered to help. She called the phone and it was not ringing. This was strange because I had perfect reception a minute ago. We concluded that the phone must be in customs because there is no reception in the customs area at LAX. My guess at this point was that as I rose from my seat, my phone fell out of my pocket and into Pinche’s bag. I hurried off of the plane and into the customs area.

Faceoff

In customs, I skipped passed the line and found Pinche. I asked him, “hey, did you accidentally grab my phone?” He responded, “No,” and took out another mobile phone from his pocket. What could I do? I didn’t want to accuse someone of a crime without any proof. I got the phone number of Karen the flight attendant, filed a report with the lost and found department for American Airlines and left the airport.

Tracking the iPhone

Tracking the phone

When I got to my office, I pulled up the MobileMe site and used the Find My Phone feature.To my surprise, the phone was in Sun Valley at a Daniel’s Taco Stand!!! My conclusion was that the phone had actually fallen in Pinche’s bag and he was driving around without knowing that he has my phone!

Why did I assume this? Because if I were to steal an iPhone, I would unload it fast. I would not want to drive around with homing device after committing a crime! I wrote down the address in Sun Valley. At this point, I remotely locked the iPhone to protect my personal information. I also placed a message on the screen saying, “Please return this phone to Sam. (310) 856-xxxx. I did not get a call. I sent message after message. You can make the phone sound an alarm even if is on vibrate… so I was hoping that Pinche would find this thing and return it…. but no cigar. Boy, the phone must be deep inside his bag and probably in the trunk of his car because, an hour later, the phone had moved again, to another location in Sun Valley.Then, to my dismay, the phone went offline! I guessed that it’s probably inside of a parking lot, or just in one of a billion AT&T deadzones. I kept tracking it and by 10pm, it was at 1500 Gramercy in Los Angeles. Interesting swimming pool in this picture no?

The swimming pool

Now I was beginning to get suspicious. I had sent 20 messages.Pinche must have opened his bag by now.

Tuesday – Faced with Defeat

The next day, I tracked the phone again, and it was traveling on the 99 freeway at exit 255 in Stockton! Now I knew that the phone was stolen.It might have been the cleaning crew, it might be Pinche, it might be someone who has purchased it. Again, I assume that whoever has it will soon, unlock, jailbreak and sell the phone on eBay. I sent message after message, but seeing that the phone was offline I assumed that it was either dead, thrown out of a car, or unlocked and sold. Goodbye my dear iPhone 3Gs. We had a beautiful month and a half together.

Wednesday – It’s All Over

I did not see any trace of the phone all day. Whoever had it had either turned it off, or reprogrammed it. I began looking for a new phone. A new iPhone without renewing your plan runs about $700 after taxes.Man, I was feeling down. It’s so depressing when you realize you’ve been had.

Thursday – Don’t Pickpocket the Devil

I got up on Thursday morning and checked my MobileMe account.Someone had turned the phone on at 7:30pm the previous night and he was in Lodi California. The iPhone lives! I posted the image of the apartment building and a map of the neighborhood on Facebook.

Many of you began commenting and a genius recommended me to check the calls made from the phone. I didn’t expect to find any calls because, why the hell would an iPhone thief leave a trail like that? It’s such a stupid crook thing to do.

I checked the calls, and HOLY CRAP!!! Someone made 2 calls to Mexico, one call to LA and one call to somewhere near Stockton within 5 minutes of me losing my phone!!! Pinche picked my pocket and began making calls as he was walking towards customs.

Calls made

SON OF A BITCH – I WILL GET YOU!

Now, I like using google to find information on people, but I never really dive in too deep. By stealing my phone, Pinche gave me the moral greenlight to stalk the shit out of him and take away any sense of privacy he has for the rest of his life. I really couldn’t get law-enforcement to help (they said that unless someone’s life is in danger, they cant do anything), so my only option was to keep fucking with this guy until he returns my iPhone.

I wanted him to know, I know where he is, I know who his family members are, I know where he lives, I know who his roommates are, I know who his roommates cousins are, I know what his sister drives, I know where he eats, I know his name, I know his age, his mothers age… anything and everything to prove to this Pinche that he is holding Satan’s cell phone.

My tools are, Google, AT&T, MobileMe, White Pages and ussearch.com.

The (323) Number

When I googled the (323) number, I came up with a name and an address.The address was the same location that I had tracked the phone to on Monday night. This is where he slept that night.

At the Pool with the iPhone

Notice theinteresting swimming pool? I also got a name.The name sounded familiar. I remembered that Pinche had filled out “m—–” on his customs form. At least now I know for sure that the guy on the plane is the one who took my phone, and he doesn’t seem very iPhone savvy.

I ran a ussearch on the phone number and name and came up with an apartment number at this location. There are 6 people living in Apt ### at this address. I saved this information in case I needed some “make you shit your pants from the sheer terror of how little privacy I have now” ammunition.

Number Search

I called the number, but the person that answered was an old lady and she only spoke in Spanish. So I asked my friend Ramiro to talk to her. He told me that the woman is really old and he doesn’t want to harass her because she seems like a nice lady. He just told her that someone who has stolen my phone called her on January 11th at 3:44pm and that we just want the phone back.

Me and a friend planned to go to the apartment on Friday and leave a document with all this information. Just so they know that we know who they are, and that we know where Pinche is and what he’s done!

The Mexico Number

I asked a lovely friend in Mexico to call the number since I was guessing nobody at that number would talk English. My friend told me that this number is from a place near Guadalajara. This is interesting because now I can devise that Pinche was not in Cabo for vacation, but probably connecting a flight. Also, he might be fearful of getting sent back to Mexico. More to scare him with! The woman who answered denied, denied and denied some more. She said she lives in a house with several other people and she has no idea who called who. She also said that she cant read or write so she cant write down our number or get back in touch with us. I have a feeling that this woman was his mother.

We called her again later that day to see if she found out who the person was who called her twice on Monday. Again she denied, but I think we got to her. I’m sure she had a talk with Pinche after that call.

The 209 Number

Phone Match

I called the (209) number. A woman picked up who called herself Luz.Luz was a bit confused as to why I was calling. I explained that someone who had stolen my phone had called her. She denied it, but I told her that she had a 4 minute conversation with him. She still denied it. Again I said, “he called you right after we landed, then he came to your town the next day. You must know him.” Finally she gave in and said that perhaps someone had left her a message (but who leaves 4 minute messages?). She “checked” the message and said that it was silent. No name and no message. I was going nowhere with this call unless I had more SCARY personal info on her. I said I would call her back.

I googled the number and got nothing. Then I tried ussearch.com. For $10, I got Luz’s full name and three other names associated with the phone number. Then I ran the names in the White Pages and got an address. I googled the address and got a streetview of the house.There is a white Ford Explorer parked out front of the house. Now I know what they drive. Muh huah hah hah ha ha hah hah hahhhh ha haaaaaa

Google Street View

Friday – I Own You Pinche!

I called her back and left a message using her full name, her husband’s full name, and mentioned their address in Manteca California. I also told her the street address of where I had tracked Pinche in Lodi California. I said, “If you’re protecting this guy, what you should do is have him call me and return my phone. If he doesn’t return my phone, I promise that I will have every law enforcement agency looking for him.”

Twenty Minutes Later

Luz called me and was extremely nice. She said she knows who called me and she is very mad at him. She apologized for his behavior and said that she was very embarrassed by what he’s done. Then, she said in a tone that is only possessed by angry Latinas, “If he doesn’t call you, I WILL MAKE SURE HE RETURNS THAT PHONE! I WILL GET TO HIM AND I WILL TEACH HIM A LESSON!” I thanked her and she insisted that I should not thank her because it’s my phone that was stolen. I’m guessing by the fact that she was embarrassed by the situation that Pinche is somehow related to her.

One hour later

I’m assuming at this point that Pinche’s mother, sister, aunt, uncle whoever these people were have talked to him and he is aware that we know his location. This is the image that was on the iPhone when he would turn it on. It says his name and his address in LA.

iPhone Screen

Pinche called. However, now he didn’t speak any English. No problem, Ramiro was in the office and he grabbed the phone. By now, we have so much info on this guy that we should be able to hear him crap his pants. Now, Pinche is not a good liar. First he said that he bought the phone in Mexico, which is ridiculous because I used it in front of his face in LA. Then he said that he’s in Nevada, but we had a track on him in Lodi California. He said his name is Alfonso… His voice was quivering. Ramiro told him to put the phone in a package and mail it overnight to LA. Pinche said “Okay, but you know, I spent a lot of money buying this phone. Can you reimburse me for the money I lost?”

Ramiro asked, “Who sold you the phone?”

“A friend of mine.”

“Well you have a very bad friend, maybe you should ask him to give you your money back.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think he can.”

“Okay, what we can do is, file a police report and have him fined and arrested, then he can pay you back too. We know the —- family that live in 1500 Gramercy in LA, the —- who live in Manteca and we know where the robber has been for the past five days. Should we file the report?”

“that’s okay. I’ll mail it.”

He gave us a phone number to reach him by, and I immediately did a background check on the number. It was a Lodi California phone number belonging to a man named Fernando N —–.

We told him that we’d give him a check for the postage if he doesn’t have it. He was very happy about that.

I showed Ramiro the name that had come up on the search. Ramiro asked, “Who is Fernando N. ____”

Absolute silence.

Ramiro started giggling.

Pinche gave us an address in LA to send the check to. It was the second location that I tracked in Sun Valley on Monday afternoon. Ramiro mentioned that we saw him at that location at 6pm on Monday.

Silence. Then he said, “It’s okay. You don’t have to send a check.”

I will still send him a check… to see what name he puts on it. I dont think he realizes that I can see a scan of the check on the bofa.com website.

Saturday – 12pm – Reunited

Back with the iPhone

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SR-71 Blackbird

In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a  Berlin  disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi’s terrorist camps in  Libya  . My duty was to fly over  Libya  and take photos recording the damage our F-111′s had inflicted.. Qaddafi had established a ‘line of death,’ a territorial marking across the  Gulf of Sidra  , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph.

I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world’s fastest jet, accompanied by a Marine Major (Walt), the aircraft’s reconnaissance systems officer (RSO). We had crossed into  Libya  and were approaching our final turn over the bleak desert landscape when Walt informed me that he was receiving missile launch signals. I quickly increased our speed, calculating the time it would take for the  I estimated that we could beat the rocket-powered missiles to the turn and stayed our course, betting our lives on the plane’s performance.

After several agonizingly long seconds, we made the turn and blasted toward the Mediterranean  . ‘You might want to pull it back,’ Walt suggested. It was then that I noticed I still had the throttles full forward. The plane was flying a mile every 1.6 seconds, well above our Mach 3.2 limit. It was the fastest we would ever fly. I pulled the throttles to idle just south of  Sicily  , but we still overran the refueling tanker awaiting us over  Gibraltar .

Scores of significant aircraft have been produced in the 100 years of flight, following the achievements of the Wright brothers, which we celebrate in December. Aircraft such as the Boeing 707, the F-86 Sabre Jet, and the P-51 Mustang are among the important machines that have flown our skies. But the SR-71, also known as the Blackbird, stands alone as a significant contributor to Cold War victory and as the fastest plane ever-and only 93 Air Force pilots ever steered the ‘sled,’ as we called our aircraft.

The SR-71 was the brainchild of Kelly Johnson, the famed Lockheed designer who created the P-38, the F-104 Starfighter, and the U-2. After the Soviets shot down Gary Powers’ U-2 in 1960, Johnson began to develop an aircraft that would fly three miles higher and five times faster than the spy plane-and still be capable of photographing your license plate. However, flying at 2,000 mph would create intense heat on the aircraft’s skin. Lockheed engineers used a titanium alloy to construct more than 90 percent of the SR-71, creating special tools and manufacturing procedures to hand-build each of the 40 planes. Special heat-resistant fuel, oil, and hydraulic fluids that would function at 85,000 feet and higher also had to be developed.

In 1962, the first Blackbird successfully flew, and in 1966, the same year I graduated from high school, the Air Force began flying operational SR-71 missions. I came to the program in 1983 with a sterling record and a recommendation from my commander, completing the weeklong interview and meeting Walt, my partner for the next four years He would ride four feet behind me, working all the cameras, radios, and electronic jamming equipment. I joked that if we were ever captured, he was the spy and I was just the driver. He told me to keep the pointy end forward.

We trained for a year, flying out of Beale AFB in California , Kadena Airbase in  Okinawa , and RAF Mildenhall in  England  . On a typical training mission, we would take off near  Sacramento , refuel over Nevada, accelerate into  Montana , obtain high Mach over  Colorado , turn right over  New Mexico , speed across the  Los Angeles   Basin , run up the West Coast, turn right at  Seattle , then return to Beale. Total flight time: two hours and 40 minutes.

One day, high above  Arizona  , we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. ‘Ninety knots,’ ATC replied.  A Bonanza soon made the same request. ‘One-twenty on the ground,’ was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was ‘Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,’ ATC responded.

The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walt’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walt startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, ‘  Aspen  20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.’ We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast.

The Blackbird always showed us something new, each aircraft possessing its own unique personality. In time, we realized we were flying a national treasure. When we taxied out of our revetments for takeoff, people took notice. Traffic congregated near the airfield fences, because everyone wanted to see and hear the mighty SR-71 You could not be a part of this program and not come to love the airplane. Slowly, she revealed her secrets to us as we earned her trust.

One moonless night, while flying a routine training mission over the Pacific, I wondered what the sky would look like from 84,000 feet if the cockpit lighting were dark. While heading home on a straight course, I slowly turned down all of the lighting, reducing the glare and revealing the night sky.  Within seconds, I turned the lights back up, fearful that the jet would know and somehow punish me. But my desire to see the sky overruled my caution, I dimmed the lighting again. To my amazement, I saw a bright light outside my window. As my eyes adjusted to the view, I realized that the brilliance was the broad expanse of the Milky Way, now a gleaming stripe across the sky.Where dark spaces in the sky had usually existed, there were now dense clusters of sparkling stars. Shooting stars flashed across the canvas every few seconds. It was like a fireworks display with no sound.

I knew I had to get my eyes back on the instruments, and reluctantly I brought my attention back inside. To my surprise, with the cockpit lighting still off, I could see every gauge, lit by starlight. In the plane’s mirrors, I could see the eerie shine of my gold spacesuit incandescently illuminated in a celestial glow. I stole one last glance out the window. Despite our speed, we seemed still before the heavens, humbled in the radiance of a much greater power. For those few moments, I felt a part of something far more significant than anything we were doing in the plane. The sharp sound of Walt’s voice on the radio brought me back to the tasks at hand as I prepared for our descent.

The SR-71 was an expensive aircraft to operate. The most significant cost was tanker support, and in 1990, confronted with budget cutbacks, the Air Force retired the SR-71. The SR-71 served six presidents, protecting  America for a quarter of a century. Unbeknownst to most of the country, the plane flew over  North Vietnam  , Red  China ,  North Korea  , the  Middle East , South Africa ,  Cuba  ,  Nicaragua  ,  Iran  ,  Libya  , and the Falkland Islands . On a weekly basis, the SR-71 kept watch over every Soviet nuclear submarine and mobile missile site, and all of their troop movements. It was a key factor in winning the Cold War.

I am proud to say I flew about 500 hours in this aircraft. I knew her well. She gave way to no plane, proudly dragging her sonic boom through enemy backyards with great impunity. She defeated every missile, outran every MiG, and always brought us home. In the first 100 years of manned flight, no aircraft was more remarkable.

The Blackbird had outrun nearly 4,000 missiles, not once taking a scratch from enemy fire.

On her final flight, the Blackbird , destined for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, sped from Los Angeles to Washington in 64 minutes, averaging 2,145 mph and setting four speed records.

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Jumping Joe.... cRaZy!

His name is Captain Joe Kittinger, and he is a former Command Pilot and career military officer in the United States Air Force.  Serving as a fighter pilot during theVietnam War, he was shot down and spent 11 months in a North Vietnamese prison!!!…. but thats not the crazy part that caught me!  He is most famous for his participation in Project Excelsior.

What is Project Excelsior you ask?  well….

For Project Excelsior (meaning “ever upward”), he made a series of three extreme altitude parachute jumps from an open gondola carried aloft by large helium balloons.

Kittinger’s first high-altitude jump, from about 76,400 feet (23,300 meters) on November 16, 1959, was a near-disaster when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness, but the automatic parachute opener in his equipment saved his life (he went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of about 120 rpm; the g-forces at his extremities has been calculated to be over 22 times the force of gravity, setting another record).

You think he would call it quits after that little accident but nope… not Joe.. he had guts (and large gonads)

On August 16, 1960, he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet (31,300 m). Towing a small drogue chute for initial stabilization, he fell for four minutes and 36 seconds, reaching a maximum speed of 614 mph (988 km/h or 274 m/s) before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet (5,500 m). For those that dont know, the speed of sound is 340.29 m /s.

On this jump pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled up to twice its normal size!!! I wish i could find a picture of that!  He set historical numbers for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. These are still current USAF records!

Watch this… amazing!

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bmw oracle trimaran

The boat is a 90-ft. LWL, 90-ft. beam sloop rigged one-off racing sail trimaran Designed by VPLP Yacht Design with consultation from Franck Cammas and his Groupama multi-hull sailing team, BOR90 is very light for its size being constructed almost entirely out of carbon fiber and epoxy resin, and exhibits very high performance being able to sail at 2.0 to 2.5 times the true wind speed

I found the most interesting part of the boat was the sail. On Sunday, November 8, 2009 BMW Oracle Racing revealed the replacement to their mast that broke on November 3, 2009.   Instead of using cloth-like sails, they are using a hard surface shaped like a wing.  The wing can change shape so that the boat can sail at different angles to the wind. This allows it to sail in any direction that a conventional sailboat could go. The wing is very high aspect, meaning that it is very tall and narrow. It is 190 feet tall and is 80% larger in area than the wing on a 747. This allows the airfoil to be very efficient (producing lots of lift with minimal drag).  On November 10, BMW reported that they hit 32 mph boat speed while highest reported wind speed during this time was less than 10 knots. [2]

Notes on the wing

• The wing sail consists of two main components: the main element and the flap element. The main element is one single piece that rotates around the mast step. Eight individual flaps rotate around the trailing edge of the main element. Both elements are separated by a small gap and linked together by nine main hinges.
• The wing is primarily constructed from carbon fibre and kevlar with a light, shrinkable aeronautical film material used as an overall skin over the frame. Nearly 40,000 man-hours of construction went into building it.
• According to Joseph Ozanne, an aeronautical specialist with the BMW ORACLE Racing design team, the ability to trim the wing easily is one of its big advantages over a soft sail.
• With a soft sail, it’s so big, it’s difficult to shape as you only have control over three points (head, tack, clew). You need massive tension to trim the soft sail,” he says. “With a wing sail, you can get the shape you want much more easily.”
• The main trim parameters are: master wing rotation (similar to mast rotation on a conventional rig); master camber control (general rotation of the flap element); flap twist control (each flap can have a specific angle of rotation).
• “On paper, it’s a clear advantage over the soft sail,” Ozanne says. “It’s on such a different scale to what has been done before, it’s hard not to have some uncertainty. But we are more and more confident… I think it’s going to be a strong addition for us.”

You can read more about the boat and see a few videos on the teams website – http://bmworacleracing.com/

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This one is from some footage I took on New Years Ski trip down to Fernie soon.  I headed down with a few of Meghan’s friends and ripped up the hill with the camera she bought me for Christmas.  Its a GoPro HD camera and I cant wait to use it more this summer, she knows the way to my heart .  It mounts on almost anything so there will be some more vids to come!

Fernie 09 from Carson Bannon on Vimeo.

This one is a  cool commercial shot for Nike.  It uses the same style of footage as you would get from the GoPro camera but was made by a pro… wicked commercial none the less.

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Metrigear Vector Poster

While a power meter is certainly an important tool for a professional cyclist, the bulk of them are of course sold to amateurs who misinterpret their amateur status and poor results as signs that they need to spend a huge amount of money on a power meter when in fact their amateur status and poor results are actually the very reasons they don’t need a power meter. If you’re an amateur, buying a power meter to train is like hiring an accountant to tell you how broke you are or like buying an iPhone just to check your Cannondale stock. Yet amateurs not only buy power meters, but they think $1,000 for a power meter is actually cheap. Clearly then, I will make a fortune when I introduce my own power meter at next year’s Interbike, since it will be the cheapest and most accurate one ever. Yes, for $5 you’ll get an LCD display which constantly flashes the message, “You suck.”If that’s not enough data for you and you crave downloadable information, simply plug your own license number into the National Cycling website and analyze away.

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More Meat Please

• In the developing world, people who climb out of poverty change their diet from grains and beans to pork and beef. Since 1950, per capita consumption of meat worldwide more than doubled. In the 70’s, people in the US ate 90 lbs. of red meat per year. In 2003, it was 65 lbs. In 2007, it was 55 lbs. In the US, 70% of all wheat, corn and grain goes to feeding livestock. Livestock produces 130 times as much waste as people do. One hog farm in Utah produces more sewage than the City of Los Angeles.
• To produce one hamburger, it requires 795 liters of water and creates 12 lbs. of animal waste.
• 60% of animal feed is contaminated with ecoli.
• 41,059 people were killed in traffic accidents in the US in 2007. This is equivalent to two fully loaded 747’s crashing each week, about 790 people deaths each week. In the world,1.2 million die each year from traffic accidents, 8 million die of starvation.
• 1 out of every 2 people in Canada is eligible to donate blood. Only 1 in 60 actually donated in the last 12 months.
• 80% of diabetics die of heart disease. Over 60% of retired NFL linemen are diabetic. They continue to eat the same but stop exercising after football.
• South Africa – land area is 1.219M sq. km., slightly less than twice the size of Texas. Population is 48.7M, 10% white. 5.3M have HIV/AIDS, 800 people die form AIDS each day is South Africa.
• Number of Aboriginal people in Canada is 1.3M, or 4% of the population. Yet they own or control 30% of the land mass of Canada. In 2007, federal gov’t allocated $9 billion to Aboriginals – $6,900 per person.
• The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant accident was the most expensive catastrophe in peacetime history – costs of $200 billion. It contaminated 50% of the area of Ukraine. 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled. 125,000 people were killed as a result of the accident.
• In March 2009, it was announced that Ontario would have a $18 billion deficit over the next two years. 272,000 manufacturing jobs were lost over the last four years. Unemployment rate is 8.7%. If the Detroit Three auto makers cease production, 323,100 jobs would be lost in Canada, 280,000 in Ontario. Ontario’s Minister of Economic Development is Michael Bryant (boxer) who oversees the Next Generation of Jobs Fund, $1.15 billion over 5 years. Consultants are Prof. Roger Martin (U of T, dean of Rotman School of Business) and Prof. Richard Florida (recruited to U of T by Martin). Florida promotes “creativity-oriented” occupations. Premier Dalton McGuinty commissioned their $2.2 million report – ‘Ontario in the Creative Age’. Maclean’s columnist Andrew Potter called it “creative class” snake oil.
• Cocaine – cost to produce 1 kilo in Afghanistan is $900, value on the street in the US is $300,000, a 3200% upside.
• In the US, one tonne (metric tonne = 2,204.6 lbs.) of coal provides electricity for 1 house for 2 months. Coal reserves in the US are 264 billion tones – enough for 225 years at the current rate. Proven worldwide reserves of oil and natural gas liquids – 1.2 trillion barrels – time to use up the first 1 trillion barrels was 140 years, time of the next 1 trillion is 30 years. The cost to operate an electric car in the US is equivalent to $.75 per gallon.
• Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, had an endowment of $36.9 billion in mid 2008; it dropped to $28.7 billion over the next year, a 22% decline (biggest decline in the schools history), under former Harvard President Larry Summers, now a senior economic advisor to president Obama. From 1980 to 2000, 3.2 million sf of space was added to the campus, from 2000 to 2008, 6.2 million was added – the size of the Pentagon.

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Mark Calling home via HTC

I have also been keeping up with a few of the tour riders via Twitter.  If you haven checked this out you should.   There i a lot of stuff that happens in the tour than we see on TV (or the Internet) and there are several guys that actually use Twitter to vent, plan, congratulate, and trash talk via Twitter.

For example, after stage two of the tour Mark Cavindish made a guest Tweet (that’s a Twitter update for those who don’t know) via Mark Renshaw Twitter page.  It went something like this:

“Yesterday with 3km to go, Piet Rooijakkers (skil shimano) kidney punched me.

Is he:
A – stupid
B – crazy
C – disrespectful
D – all of the above?

Cav.”

Would have liked to see what became of that little message and fight.

If you’re looking to try and keep track of these guys via Twitter here are a few more riders that Tweet.  Don’t bother writing anything to them though… i think each of them has over a thousand followers (lance has 1.3 million) so your message might not get through. Happy Tweeting

Lance Armstrong – lancearmstrong
Levi Leipheimer – levileipheimer
Bradly Wiggins – bradwiggins
David Zabriskie – dzabriskie
Christian Vande Velde – christianvdv
Danny pate – thedpate
Cadel Evans – cadelofficial
Charly Wegelius – wegelius
Andy Schleck – andy_schleck
Kurt Asle Arvesen – kaarvesen
Carlos Sastre – carlos_sastre
Mick Rogers – mickrogers
George Hincapie – ghincapie
Mark Renshaw – markrenshaw1
Brett Lancaster – bdlancaster
Lauren Stendam – laurenstendam
Steven de jongh – stevendejongh
Koen de Kort – koendekort
Fumy Beppu – fumybeppu
Johan Bruyneel – johanbruyneel
Carson Bannon – cbtriplec

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Make your own bike lane

A few months ago the LightLane personal bike path was merely a competition entry in conceptual phase. Using high powered laser beams mounted to bicycle seat posts, the light generated so much interest that the designers took it into development.

Alex Tee, a mechanical engineer, and industrial designer Evan Gant, who both work with the Boston-based design firm Altitude, Inc. are currently in the production engineering phase of development. The proposed LightLane model uses two high-visibility DPSS (diode-pumped solid state) green lasers mounted alongside traditional bright red LEDs to crisply mark a broad path on the pavement.

Check out more at http://www.lightlanebike.com/

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If you know a little about how cervelo started this option might sounds like a viable idea.

Cervélo Cycles saw the light of day in 1995 when 2 engineers, Phil White and Gérard Vroomen, decided to take the work they had been doing on developing faster Time Trial bikes to market. Already involved in bicycle and Human Powered Vehicle design since 1986, the turning point came when a top-ranked Italian pro cyclist approached Gérard to design the fastest possible Time Trial bike for him. He had come to the realization that his bike sponsor was capable of building traditional bikes using off the shelf tubesets from Columbus or Easton, but did not have the interest or expertise to develop leading edge designs with the focus on time trialing and aerodynamics. He also realized that he could not look at the novel designs put before him and know if they were improvements, or just “different”. 

The First Real Cervelo

 With help of his team we started the bike design from scratch. We evaluated the bikes on the market, and set a design goal for the bike that was difficult and uncompromising. We wanted something that was unbeatable in aerodynamics yet sacrificed nothing in weight or stiffness, and unfettered by issues of marketability. It was to be a one-off design for this rider.

The result was a pretty radical bike that pushed the rules in almost every area. It tested extremely well for aerodynamics, as well as handling, stiffness and comfort.

Now not all of us are engineers or have all the spare time in the world to make a custom carbon frame, but you can always try.  I did a little research on how its done and found a few great pages that actually take you through a step by step process.  Check them out here:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/carbon_fiber.htm

http://www.bmeres.com/carbonframe1.htm

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Bernhard Kohl at last years Tour

This article came up today. – http://tiny.cc/2IiAq

Bernhard Kohl, the Austrian cyclist who finished third in last year’s Tour de France before testing positive for a previously undetectable form of EPO, has revealed the extent of his doping practices, and claimed the much-vaunted biological passport programme of the International Cycling Union (UCI) is ineffective in catching cheats.

In an interview with L’Equipe, Kohl admitted that, as well as taking Cera, a so-called third generation EPO, he performed illegal blood transfusions during last year’s Tour, in which he was crowned King of the Mountains. He also claimed a culture of doping is still prevalent in the sport, and that, in his opinion, any rider who finished in the top 10 of last year’s race was likely to have doped.

On the biological passports, Kohl said: “The top riders are so professional in their doping that they know very well they have to keep their blood values stable [so as] not to be detected. The UCI sent us the values resulting from the controls: we thus referred to those to mark the next ones. In a way, the passport almost helped us.” >>>> more here

Its crazy that this can still be going on, and no one seems to have control over it.

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Try searching something like: 

human, 6ft 2in, 180lb’

Running 30min, 250m/mi, 28yo male, 6’2″, 180lb

May 19, 2009

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