Random Thoughts. The Return.

[redrum]

1 hour ago, paul carruthers said:

I believe that Emotional Rescue, has become my new favorite song by the Stones....

One I really like by Keith. I'm going to steal his Telecaster. 

 

[SteveAJones]

7 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Here is my random thought:

If Putin invades Ukraine and his forces are beaten back to the Russian border, do you think he will use tactical nukes? I for one believe if Putin invades Ukraine, there is a 90% chance this is game over baby. Time to get out the iodine tablets and leave the big cities / areas around military instillations. 

If Putin wants to take Ukraine, which is NOT a democracy, he'll take it and keep it unopposed on the field of battle by any third party.

Time for the Biden crime family to find another nation to exploit for their own personal gain. 

[Stryder1978]

IOC has effectively cleared the way for Russia to cheat forever

Dan Wetzel

·Columnist

Mon, February 14, 2022, 3:21 AM

•  
•  

   

• 

  Tokyo Games
• Kamila Valieva

  Russian figure skater

 

 

 

Kamila Valieva is a 15-year-old who lives and trains within the controlled cocoon of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia. As such, most agree, she probably did not independently obtain a drug for angina patients that just happens to improve endurance (and is thus banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency).

So when that substance, trimetazidine, was found in Valieva’s system, it's assumed that some coach, doctor or whomever in Russia is responsible for the skating sensation being hopped up on heart pills.

This is the same Russia, of course, that ran a sophisticated, state-sponsored, performance-enhancing drug operation at the 2014 Olympics, causing the IOC to ban it from three subsequent Games, including the current one in Beijing.

Russia cheated. Russia cheats.

Russia runs a system where someone is doping kids.

Yet no one seems to care. Certainly no one is going to stop it from abusing children, let alone the system.

Despite the positive test, Valieva will compete in the women’s individual competition Tuesday. She is so much better than everyone else, she'll be the considerable favorite. Likewise, her performance in last week’s team event, where she led Russia to gold, will stand.

In an insult to intelligence, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Monday that Valieva cannot be provisionally suspended even though a test she took in December of 2021 just came back showing trimetazidine in her system. The case will still proceed. She could be retroactively disqualified months from now, but the Olympic moment will be gone.

The three-person panel based the decision on Valieva being a so-called “Protected Person,” which means she is too young to know what is happening to her. Well, maybe she doesn’t. Or maybe she does. Either way, the IOC, the International Skating Union and the World Anti-Doping Association all claim that the “Protected Person” label isn’t applicable when considering provisional suspensions.

The panel also followed the Russian Anti-Doping Association’s argument that since the lab in Sweden didn’t process the test for six and a half weeks, Valieva doesn’t have enough time to defend herself. But WADA said the delay was because Russia didn’t label it a “priority sample.”

 

Russia's Kamila Valieva has continued training in Beijing while waiting for a ruling on the IOC appeal. That ruling came Monday, and will allow her to continue to compete in the 2022 Olympic Games. (REUTERS)

“This meant the laboratory did not know to fast track the analysis,” WADA stated. If the processing had been delayed just a couple more days, of course, the Olympics would have been conveniently over. And just how many other Russian tests are being slow-played right now?

CAS didn’t appear to ask. Basically, the anti-doping association of a country that has been found guilty of widespread doping managed to delay a doping test and then argue that due to that very delay, its gold-medal favorite should be cleared of a doping charge.

“The Panel considered that preventing [Valieva] from competing at the Olympic games would cause her irreparable harm,” the CAS ruling stated.

How about the irreparable harm to the skaters who haven’t tested positive for a banned substance?

How about the irreparable harm to the Olympics itself?

“We are disappointed by the messages this sends,” Sarah Hirshland, chair of the USOPC, said, noting athletes have “the right to know they are competing on a level playing field.”

Valieva isn’t just some competitor. Her ability to effortlessly land quads has, in just four months on the senior international level, allowed her to set nine world records and register the three highest scores of all time.

This isn’t Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs. It’s Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in the first month of his rookie season.

The irreparable harm comes from CAS itself for acting like this occurred in a vacuum. It granted Russia a consideration of innocence, despite its rich history of guilt.

This is a country that constructed an actual building next to the testing lab of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, drilled a hole in the wall and at night slipped dirty samples from Russian athletes out and clean-samples in. Then it did it during the Paralympics, too.

At both events, the Russians won the most medals while miraculously not having a single athlete test positive. When the scheme became public, two of its chief architects turned up dead.

You think Russia wouldn’t give a figure skater a PED?

But hey, it worked. And it continues to work. It must be a total coincidence that the only three women at the Olympics attempting quads are Russian teenagers.

Valieva should win gold, but Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova should be right behind her to make it an All-Russian podium. This competition is a complete joke. The top non-Russian skater is Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto. Her season's best is 223.34 points. Valieva’s is 272.71.

That’s a 20 percent difference.

The original sin — other than Russia always cheating, of course — comes from the IOC, which was too weak to truly ban it when it should have. It instead allows Russian athletes surrounded by the same Russian coaches and doctors to compete as the “Russian Organizing Committee.”

"We took tough action," IOC spokesman Mark Adams claimed. “They aren't allowed to have the flag or the anthem and many other things. It's quite a tough sanction."

It was such a tough sanction that Russia is doping a 15-year-old and then delaying the test results. Now the IOC says that “in the interest and fairness” of the athletes, it won’t even have a medal or flower ceremony for any event Valieva podiums in. That’s how absurd this has gotten.

“This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” Hirshland of the USOPC said.

Not that anyone is going to do anything about it.

CAS is worried about irreparable harm while causing irreparable harm. The IOC thinks Vladimir Putin cares about a flag and song when he’s too busy showing his strength by humiliating it.

Kamila Valieva is going to skate. Kamila Valieva is going to win. Russia is going to cheat. This time, next time, all the time. Why wouldn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

[Electrophile]

I feel bad for whoever else medals in the Ladies' competition because their moment of standing on the podium and getting their medal has been taken from them because of the same shit Russia has been doing since probably the 1950s. The culture of malfeasance in their international sports program has been going on for decades, and there's no indication it'll ever stop. 

[Stryder1978]

Unbelievable that Russia can get caught for doping in 2014, get "sanctioned" by the IOC for the next four Olympics....then be allowed to participate as the "ROC", have the sanctions reduced to THREE Olympics and now get away with doping AGAIN!

Is the IOC afraid Putin will invade the Olympic stadium? 

[chillumpuffer]

Once a cheat always a cheat.

[BobDobbs]

58 minutes ago, Stryder1978 said:

IOC has effectively cleared the way for Russia to cheat forever

Dan Wetzel

·Columnist

Mon, February 14, 2022, 3:21 AM

•  

   
•  

   

   

   

• 

  Tokyo Games
• Kamila Valieva

  Russian figure skater

 

 

 

Kamila Valieva is a 15-year-old who lives and trains within the controlled cocoon of the Figure Skating Federation of Russia. As such, most agree, she probably did not independently obtain a drug for angina patients that just happens to improve endurance (and is thus banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency).

So when that substance, trimetazidine, was found in Valieva’s system, it's assumed that some coach, doctor or whomever in Russia is responsible for the skating sensation being hopped up on heart pills.

This is the same Russia, of course, that ran a sophisticated, state-sponsored, performance-enhancing drug operation at the 2014 Olympics, causing the IOC to ban it from three subsequent Games, including the current one in Beijing.

Russia cheated. Russia cheats.

Russia runs a system where someone is doping kids.

Yet no one seems to care. Certainly no one is going to stop it from abusing children, let alone the system.

Despite the positive test, Valieva will compete in the women’s individual competition Tuesday. She is so much better than everyone else, she'll be the considerable favorite. Likewise, her performance in last week’s team event, where she led Russia to gold, will stand.

In an insult to intelligence, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled Monday that Valieva cannot be provisionally suspended even though a test she took in December of 2021 just came back showing trimetazidine in her system. The case will still proceed. She could be retroactively disqualified months from now, but the Olympic moment will be gone.

The three-person panel based the decision on Valieva being a so-called “Protected Person,” which means she is too young to know what is happening to her. Well, maybe she doesn’t. Or maybe she does. Either way, the IOC, the International Skating Union and the World Anti-Doping Association all claim that the “Protected Person” label isn’t applicable when considering provisional suspensions.

The panel also followed the Russian Anti-Doping Association’s argument that since the lab in Sweden didn’t process the test for six and a half weeks, Valieva doesn’t have enough time to defend herself. But WADA said the delay was because Russia didn’t label it a “priority sample.”

 

Russia's Kamila Valieva has continued training in Beijing while waiting for a ruling on the IOC appeal. That ruling came Monday, and will allow her to continue to compete in the 2022 Olympic Games. (REUTERS)

“This meant the laboratory did not know to fast track the analysis,” WADA stated. If the processing had been delayed just a couple more days, of course, the Olympics would have been conveniently over. And just how many other Russian tests are being slow-played right now?

CAS didn’t appear to ask. Basically, the anti-doping association of a country that has been found guilty of widespread doping managed to delay a doping test and then argue that due to that very delay, its gold-medal favorite should be cleared of a doping charge.

“The Panel considered that preventing [Valieva] from competing at the Olympic games would cause her irreparable harm,” the CAS ruling stated.

How about the irreparable harm to the skaters who haven’t tested positive for a banned substance?

How about the irreparable harm to the Olympics itself?

“We are disappointed by the messages this sends,” Sarah Hirshland, chair of the USOPC, said, noting athletes have “the right to know they are competing on a level playing field.”

Valieva isn’t just some competitor. Her ability to effortlessly land quads has, in just four months on the senior international level, allowed her to set nine world records and register the three highest scores of all time.

This isn’t Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs. It’s Barry Bonds hitting 73 home runs in the first month of his rookie season.

The irreparable harm comes from CAS itself for acting like this occurred in a vacuum. It granted Russia a consideration of innocence, despite its rich history of guilt.

This is a country that constructed an actual building next to the testing lab of the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, drilled a hole in the wall and at night slipped dirty samples from Russian athletes out and clean-samples in. Then it did it during the Paralympics, too.

At both events, the Russians won the most medals while miraculously not having a single athlete test positive. When the scheme became public, two of its chief architects turned up dead.

You think Russia wouldn’t give a figure skater a PED?

But hey, it worked. And it continues to work. It must be a total coincidence that the only three women at the Olympics attempting quads are Russian teenagers.

Valieva should win gold, but Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova should be right behind her to make it an All-Russian podium. This competition is a complete joke. The top non-Russian skater is Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto. Her season's best is 223.34 points. Valieva’s is 272.71.

That’s a 20 percent difference.

The original sin — other than Russia always cheating, of course — comes from the IOC, which was too weak to truly ban it when it should have. It instead allows Russian athletes surrounded by the same Russian coaches and doctors to compete as the “Russian Organizing Committee.”

"We took tough action," IOC spokesman Mark Adams claimed. “They aren't allowed to have the flag or the anthem and many other things. It's quite a tough sanction."

It was such a tough sanction that Russia is doping a 15-year-old and then delaying the test results. Now the IOC says that “in the interest and fairness” of the athletes, it won’t even have a medal or flower ceremony for any event Valieva podiums in. That’s how absurd this has gotten.

“This appears to be another chapter in the systemic and pervasive disregard for clean sport by Russia,” Hirshland of the USOPC said.

Not that anyone is going to do anything about it.

CAS is worried about irreparable harm while causing irreparable harm. The IOC thinks Vladimir Putin cares about a flag and song when he’s too busy showing his strength by humiliating it.

Kamila Valieva is going to skate. Kamila Valieva is going to win. Russia is going to cheat. This time, next time, all the time. Why wouldn’t it?

 

 

 

 

 

If she is too young to have agency, to know what is happening to her, how exactly is she old enough to compete? How is this situation any different than, say, dog racing? 

This is nuts. All competitors should be at least 18 years old to compete. This nonsense of having a bunch of kids competing is just silly and always has been. The Olympics as they currently are, absolutely disgusting. Plus, China having the Olympics AGAIN after only 14 years since the last Olympics in Beijing. Gee, I wonder if the Olympic committee is corrupt???

Edited February 15, 2022 by BobDobbs

[Electrophile]

1 hour ago, BobDobbs said:

If she is too young to have agency, to know what is happening to her, how exactly is she old enough to compete? How is this situation any different than, say, dog racing? 

This is nuts. All competitors should be at least 18 years old to compete. This nonsense of having a bunch of kids competing is just silly and always has been. The Olympics as they currently are, absolutely disgusting. Plus, China having the Olympics AGAIN after only 14 years since the last Olympics in Beijing. Gee, I wonder if the Olympic committee is corrupt???

 

That's not unusual. Lake Placid had the Winter Olympics in 1980, Los Angeles had the Summer Olympics in 1984. Atlanta had the Summer Olympics in 1996, Salt Lake City had the Winter Olympics in 2002. The truth is, there are very few countries in the world with the ready-made infrastructure to host the Olympics, and China is one of them. What the IOC needs to do is instead of having countries bid on the Olympics, they just need to have a set choice of Summer Olympics venues and Winter Olympics venues and just rotate them. The countries that have had the most successful Olympics are the countries that don't need to build a shit-ton of infrastructure ahead of time. They've already got stadiums/arenas/pools/rinks/etc. that can be used for those sports.

[BobDobbs]

11 minutes ago, Electrophile said:

 

That's not unusual. Lake Placid had the Winter Olympics in 1980, Los Angeles had the Summer Olympics in 1984. Atlanta had the Summer Olympics in 1996, Salt Lake City had the Winter Olympics in 2002. The truth is, there are very few countries in the world with the ready-made infrastructure to host the Olympics, and China is one of them. What the IOC needs to do is instead of having countries bid on the Olympics, they just need to have a set choice of Summer Olympics venues and Winter Olympics venues and just rotate them. The countries that have had the most successful Olympics are the countries that don't need to build a shit-ton of infrastructure ahead of time. They've already got stadiums/arenas/pools/rinks/etc. that can be used for those sports.

Makes sense to me, however what I was on about is how exactly does a country such as China, with human rights abuses out the wazoo, given the right to host the games? If ok for China, why not Saudi Arabia? 

[cryingbluerain]

6 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Makes sense to me, however what I was on about is how exactly does a country such as China, with human rights abuses out the wazoo, given the right to host the games? If ok for China, why not Saudi Arabia? 

On this we can agree.

[paul carruthers]

I just noticed it's 6pm and the sun is still shining outside. Getting closer to Daylight Saving....  

[Walter]

16 minutes ago, paul carruthers said:

I just noticed it's 6pm and the sun is still shining outside. Getting closer to Daylight Saving....  

Yup 6:23 down here and still light outside

[BobDobbs]

5 hours ago, cryingbluerain said:

On this we can agree.

Consensus!!!

Salve' citizen 🙂 

[SteveAJones]

16 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Plus, China having the Olympics AGAIN after only 14 years since the last Olympics in Beijing. Gee, I wonder if the Olympic committee is corrupt???

There are fewer and fewer nations willing to pony up the funds to host an Olympics. Most that do regret it (Japan lost its ass on the Tokyo Games and would have done so even without a pandemic).

[SteveAJones]

15 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Makes sense to me, however what I was on about is how exactly does a country such as China, with human rights abuses out the wazoo, given the right to host the games? If ok for China, why not Saudi Arabia? 

Arab nations can't make a competitive bid. They have neither the infrastructure nor the political will to do so.

Edited February 16, 2022 by SteveAJones

[redrum]

15 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Makes sense to me, however what I was on about is how exactly does a country such as China, with human rights abuses out the wazoo, given the right to host the games? If ok for China, why not Saudi Arabia? 

palm-greas·ing

 

noun

INFORMAL

 

1. bribery used to secure illicit advantages or gains in politics or business.

   "after considerable palm- greasing, the plan for a commercial building was approved"

[redrum]

One of the best videos ever and Meg is so stacked. 

 

[chillumpuffer]

1 hour ago, SteveAJones said:

Arab nations can't make a competitive bid. They have neither the infrastructure nor the political will to do so.

Didn't stop Qatar getting this year's World Cup in Football. Then again they did have the cash to bribe FIFA.

[Stryder1978]

LISTEN TO THE SCIENCE GLOBAL WARNING FANATICS!

U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds

 

 

Leah Douglas

Mon, February 14, 2022, 1:00 PM

 

 

By Leah Douglas

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Corn-based ethanol, which for years has been mixed in huge quantities into gasoline sold at U.S. pumps, is likely a much bigger contributor to global warming than straight gasoline, according to a study published Monday.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contradicts previous research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) showing ethanol and other biofuels to be relatively green.

 

President Joe Biden's administration is reviewing policies on biofuels as part of a broader effort to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050 to fight climate change.

“Corn ethanol is not a climate-friendly fuel,” said Dr. Tyler Lark, assistant scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment and lead author of the study.

The research, which was funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and U.S. Department of Energy, found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion.

Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, the ethanol trade lobby, called the study "completely fictional and erroneous," arguing the authors used "worst-case assumptions cherry-picked data."

Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law enacted in 2005, the nation's oil refiners are required to mix some 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol into the nation's gasoline annually. The policy was intended to reduce emissions, support farmers, and cut U.S. dependence on energy imports.

As a result of the mandate, corn cultivation grew 8.7% and expanded into 6.9 million additional acres of land between 2008 and 2016, the study found. That led to widespread changes in land use, including the tilling of cropland that would otherwise have been retired or enrolled in conservation programs and the planting of existing cropland with more corn, the study found.

Tilling fields releases carbon stored in soil, while other farming activities, like applying nitrogen fertilizers, also produce emissions.

A 2019 study https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17597269.2018.1546488 from the USDA, which has been broadly cited by the biofuel industry, found that ethanol’s carbon intensity was 39% lower than gasoline, in part because of carbon sequestration associated with planting new cropland.

But that research underestimated the emissions impact of land conversion, Lark said.

USDA did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the nation's biofuel policy, is considering changes to the program. Under the RFS, Congress set blending requirements through 2022, but not beyond, giving the EPA authority to impose reforms. EPA plans https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/what-is-stake-us-biofuel-blending-law-2022-beyond-2022-01-11 to propose 2023 requirements in May. (Reporting by Leah Douglas; Editing by David Gregorio)

[paul carruthers]

The things that have been popping up in my Youtube recommendations lately, like videos of alligators fighting pythons...

 

😳

[BobDobbs]

4 hours ago, paul carruthers said:

The things that have been popping up in my Youtube recommendations lately, like videos of alligators fighting pythons...

 

😳

Interesting, so, which critter usually comes out on top? I would think the python would have the advantage but then again, HTF does a python strangle an alligator? This predator on predator violence is sooooo confusing.

 

[paul carruthers]

^^ If you're seriously asking Bob, I would think that the gator would have the advantage based on size. Morbid curiosity compelled me to watch a 2 minute video where the gator just held the snake in its mouth for awhile, then let it go.

I decided I had my limit of that when I saw a thumbnail of a python swallowing a gator... 😑

[BobDobbs]

4 minutes ago, paul carruthers said:

^^ If you're seriously asking Bob, I would think that the gator would have the advantage based on size. Morbid curiosity compelled me to watch a 2 minute video where the gator just held the snake in its mouth for awhile, then let it go.

I decided I had my limit of that when I saw a thumbnail of a python swallowing a gator... 😑

Time to toss Wee-Man into the mix

[redrum]

6 hours ago, BobDobbs said:

Interesting, so, which critter usually comes out on top? I would think the python would have the advantage but then again, HTF does a python strangle an alligator? This predator on predator violence is sooooo confusing.

 

Is that a boy named Sue? 

[BobDobbs]

15 hours ago, redrum said:

Is that a boy named Sue? 

Which one