Outside correspondent Stuart Stevens, an amateur cyclist, has researched the effects of performance enhancing drugs by actually taking them. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this might be one of the most important sports articles ever written. To put it bluntly, the pervasiveness of performance enhancing drugs all but eliminates my interest in sports, period.
Entries from October 2003
The straight dope
October 27th, 2003 · Comments Off
The bizarre collision of technology and politics
October 27th, 2003 · Comments Off
Never in my lifetime did I imagine I would witness the use of the Robot Exclusion Protocol for political means. (There are also perfectly plausible, non-nefarious explanations of this, but it’s too good to pass up either way.)
Interesting logic
October 27th, 2003 · Comments Off
Bush sees that the growing pace and destructiveness of attacks in Iraq as proof that anti-occupation insurgents are becoming increasingly desperate. Once again, all evidence is taken as proof that whatever we’re already doing is working. What would prove that our efforts are not effective? Fewer attacks?
The bottom line
October 26th, 2003 · Comments Off
To me, this Washington Post story signals that Dick Cheney should turn in his resignation tomorrow. The Bush administration can spin it however they like, but Dick Cheney has done all he could since the administration decided we would invade Iraq to scare us about Iraq’s nukes. Now it turns out that there was nothing, [...]
Optimizing your RSS feed for FeedDemon
October 24th, 2003 · Comments Off
Useful: Optimizing your RSS feed for FeedDemon. Most of these tips go for all RSS readers.
Kaplan summary of the Rumsfeld memo
October 24th, 2003 · Comments Off
Fred Kaplan summarizes the Rumsfeld memo thusly:
What is being stated here can be summed up as follows: We’ll probably win the battle for Afghanistan and Iraq (or, more precisely, it’s “pretty clear” we “can win” it, “in one way or another” after “a long, hard slog”), but we’re losing the struggle for hearts and minds [...]
The story of Amazon’s full text search feature
October 24th, 2003 · Comments Off
Wired Magazine had a story about Amazon’s full text search feature set to be published in their next issue, but since Amazon launched the feature, they went ahead and published the story online. Just as Google News forever changed the way I consume news, I expect that Amazon’s full text search will change the way [...]
Taking Bush Personally
October 23rd, 2003 · Comments Off
Michael Kinsley: Taking Bush Personally. This piece is specific, not abstract.
Nice catch
October 23rd, 2003 · Comments Off
Over at Brad DeLong’s weblog, I spotted a link to this weblog entry, busting Donald Rumsfeld for lumping in Gulbudin Hekmatyar with the rest of the Taliban in Afghanistan. I noticed the error but skipped it, assuming that Rumsfeld was glossing over the details for the sake of brevity. Hekmatyar is a scumbag, but he’s [...]
Watch your analogies, Mr President
October 23rd, 2003 · Comments Off
Yesterday, Fred Kaplan posted a piece discussing President Bush’s ill-considered comparison of Iraq to the Philippines. Today, the Slacktivist posted a roundup that included a link to Kaplan’s piece and two others questioning the wisdom of making such a comparison. I should probably just recommend reading everything from the Slacktivist and Fred Kaplan and save [...]