US Navy covering up swastika barracks

Seen here is a Google Earth image of US Navy barracks in Coronado, California. The US Navy has now budgeted $600,000 to cover up the swastika shape through the installation of solar panels and various landscape modifications. They were encouraged to do the modifications by several parties, including US Rep Susan Davis, Anti-Defamation League regional director Morris Casuto, and radio talk show host Dave vonKleist.

Navy officials say the shape of the buildings, designed by local architect John Mock, was not noted until after the groundbreaking in 1967 -- and since it was not visible from the ground, a decision was made not to make any changes...

"I don't ascribe any intentionally evil motives to this," Casuto said, referring to the design. "It just happened. The Navy has been very good about recognizing the problem. The issue is over."

Link (Thanks, Paul Saffo!)

CyleSport on the Death of Disco

Unbeknownst to many, I don't actually get to read everything written in the English language on the sport of Cycling, so if I missed this in other outlets, just ignore this post (yet again) and move along...

But I want to give some props to Lionel Birnie & co. at Cycle Sport for a rather thorough and cogent analysis in this month's mag of why the Discovery Channel/Tailwind folks really decided to pull up the stakes and get on with B-school or starting blogs or whatever "pursuing other interests" is supposed to mean. As I understood it, the official position was that they could have continued but for unexplained reasons decided not to. Obviously nobody believed that, and the real reasons were assumed to be lack of sponsors or something about doping.

The real truth now seems like a complexity of all of the above, and goes something like this:

Cycling is a mess right now, so sponsors are already a tad nervous about investing in the sport.

Discovery/USPS have been the subject of rampant suspicion but no real black eyes. Still, they were very successful at a time when everyone else was doping, so you can draw your own conclusions.

ASO were not fond of the Disco juggernaut and have gone out of their way in the last couple years to paint Lance in an unfavorable light. They were also fully prepared to block the team from trotting out Ivan Basso this July.

The Basso signing is roundly considered the team's downfall, or the single biggest impetus for it. From that moment on, Discovery were on bad terms with the entire rest of the peloton and branded themselves as old-style, win-at-all-costs pariahs.

Given all of this, plus ASO's new-found freedom from the Pro Tour structure, they were by no means guaranteed an invite to the 2008 Tour de France. The idea of excluding Contador's team is outrageous, but not beyond ASO.

All of this taken together -- bad image, murky prospects, huge expenses -- means that they couldn't find a sponsor.

There's an interview with Sean Yates where he admits as much, as well as a clip of Bruyneel saying the same thing to a Belgian paper, despite the official position that sponsors were waiting in the wings. But even still, there's room for elaboration: they couldn't find a sponsor before the date in August where the Tailwind guys got fed up with/exhausted from all the bullshit (in their eyes), so they gave up.

Part of the disconnect seems to be that Discovery feel unfairly singled out... and in Cycling, singling out anyone from the last decade is kind of silly. That said, one cannot understate the fallout from the Basso affair: Bruyneel supposedly spoke loudly for Basso's exclusion from the 2006 Tour based on the Operacion Puerto link... but then, at the earliest opportunity, signed him on as their grand tour captain. Discovery argue that there's no sin in trying to win, but such rank opportunism turned out to be really bad for business in the end. More than the hypocrisy, Discovery broke ranks with teams trying to send a very different message at that time... this may actually be what hurt their fellow teams and riders most of all.

Anyway, it's all a good read and I tip my cap to them for good, canny journalism.

Cancellara...Look familiar?

Your winner and still world time trial champion, Tony Montana! I mean, Fabian Cancellara! I haven't watched the coverage yet, but he was apparently comfortably in front from the get-go, a true patron performance to cap a glorious year. His 52-second win represented the largest gap between any two consecutive finishers on the entire leaderboard, and a crushing end to the race. As late as the final 31km time check his lead was a narrow 22 seconds.

Time trials aren't always made-for-TV excitement, but Cancellara's prologue in London was pulsating, and his win on the road two days later, in the maillot jaune, will be one of 2007's truly lasting images. He also held serve at home in the Swiss Championships and Tour de Suiss ITTs, while otherwise focusing on the cobbled classics. Cancellara certainly still has mountains to climb in his career, most notably the Tour of Flanders, where he showed solid form this year but somewhat impatient tactics. But when he dons the rainbow jersey he rides with true class, and another year of such displays is something to look for

Fellow local cyclist designs Slipstream Cycling team jersey

September 27, 2007 - SLIPSTREAM SPORTS LLC ANNOUNCES "GET IN THE SLIPSTREAM" WINNER

Joe Yule of Redondo Beach, California, Named Official Designer of the Slipstream/Chipotle 2008 Team Jersey

Las Vegas, NV - September 27, 2007 - The fans have spoken and Joe Yule, a graphic designer and avid cyclist from Redondo Beach, California, has been selected as the winner of the "Get in the Slipstream" contest, sponsored by Slipstream Sports LLC and its chief venture, the Slipstream/ Chipotle Professional Cycling Team. The first-of-its-kind contest invited fans to submit design ideas for the official 2008 Team Slipstream/Chipotle jersey.

Full press release link and Jersey after the jump...

Full Release

UK police using hovering camera for surveillance

Police in Britain are conducting trials on a small battery-powered, radio-controlled helicopter called the Microdrone that comes with a camera and a loudspeaker. The manufacturer's demonstration video points out that the copter works as a peeping tom device. (Not that the police would ever misuse it.)

It's battery powered, so it's quieter -- apparently at 350 feet it is rarely noticed from the ground -- but more limited in terms of performance. Although it might seem flimsy, the video shows how stable it is in flight. It is said to be quite rugged and can return to base even if it loses two of its four rotor blades. One unusual feature is a speaker so that police can give instructions to those on the ground.

The video ... contains some footage shot from a Microdrone, which gives an impressive display of its powers. Zooming in on a sunbather in a bikini as a demonstration is not likely to allay fears about how intrusive this technology might be. And the ability to hover outside a window and peer in is one which is equally open to use and abuse.

Link

All Other Countries Have Inferior Potassium

Remember how Kazakhstan invited Sascha Cochen to visit, to show the actor how the country actually was? Or how they blocked access to his website because they felt the Borat character was so unrealistic? Well, someone apparently forgot to pass the “Kazakhstan is not backward” memo along to the sports ministry, as now the Kazakh cycling federation is claiming that Kashechkin has tested negative. In what test this result came about was not mentioned explicitly.

While Team Astana’s spokesperson shrugged cluelessly, Nikolai Proskurin, Kazakh cycling federation president, claimed, while never specifying how, that the tests of Kashechkin were “erroneous”, that Kashechkin is currently preparing his defense, and that Andreas Kloden has no intention of quitting the Astana Team. In fact, the German will be co-leading Astana at next month’s Vuelta a Espana, which, as luck would have it, the team has been re-invited to. High five! Proskurin concluded the interview by noting that all other countries have inferior potassium.

Returning to reality for a moment, the people who actually carry out dope tests have admitted that maybe there’s a little room for tweaking how the ProTour works after all. It’s a good plan, as some prefabbed ProTour races (such as the currently running ENECO Tour) are struggling to draw fans and competitors alike, though Tyler Ferrar’s 4th place in today’s prologue won’t hurt American audiences. As he’s only 3 seconds out of the lead, let’s not forget, the American is a solid sprinter.