UPDATE 29.08.2011: Yesterday, Oscar Pistorius qualified for the 400 semi finals at the athletics world championships in Daegu. A sport-court had decided that his artificial carbon legs do not give him an unfair advantage compared to other runners.

UPDATE 17.05.2008: A few hours ago the CAS (basically a court for sports) decided that the prosthetic-limbed runner Oscar Pitorious will to be allowed to start at the “normal” Olympics in Peking this year (and not the Paralympics), if he is able to qualify by beating the time of 45.95 seconds for 400 metres (his record is 46.56 seconds so far). As you can read below, the IAAF decided in January 2008 that he had unfair advantages over other athletes and therefor denied him access to the Olympics; Pistorius appealed the decision and won.

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Due to the massive number of doping reports in the last year, I had several discussions with friends about doping, drug-abuse and cyber-limbs in sports.

I think everyone would agree that tournaments (e.g. the Tour de France) should be as fair as possible in order to keep them interesting – which is one of the reasons why female do not compete versus male athletes (at least in disciplines where the body plays a key role), and which is one of the reasons why doping is not allowed in sports; you are not allowed to have an advantage over other athletes, because it makes the whole thing boring.

(Now, of course one could argue that sports per se isn’t fair, because Michael Jordan was born a better sportsman than me, but that’s just life I guess – on a statistical average, talking about sports worldwide here, we will find a bunch of athletes with the same physical conditions.)

A few days back Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter, has been denied a shot at the Olympics … for being too fast. The runner — who uses carbon-fiber, prosthetic feet — was reviewed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (or IAAF), a review which found the combination of man and machine to be too much for its purely human competitors. According to the IAAF report, the “mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30-percent.” Additionally, Pistorius uses 25-percent less energy than average runners due to the artificial limbs, therefore giving him an unfair advantage on the track… or so they say. Oscar is expected to appeal the decision, saying a lack of variables explored by the single scientific study calls for deeper investigation into the matter.

The IAAF rule 144.2 prohibits:

(e) Use of any technical device that incorporates springs, wheels or any other element that provides the user with an advantage over another athlete not using such a device.

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The pirate party was approved by a council of the German Federal Parliament as a valid party for the election in September 2009 (in contrast to other parties like the smokers’ party, the party, the anarchistic pogo-party Germany and the mountain-party).

— Source: n24.de (with thanks to J.)

I just came across the following sentences, and had to think of them as a possible gravestone inscription:

Don’t stand at my grave and cry. I am not here. I did not die.

I’d like that.

And here the confirmed full version of the poem (not the earlier version usually printed on postcards etc.), written by Mary Elizabeth Frye:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.

I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.

I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

(Thanks to Alice – I didn’t even know the line was from a poem)

I haven’t had a “breaking news” article in quite a while, but this may actually qualify: the G8 states concluded the meeting in L’Anquila with the announcement that they will from now on focus on a different way of developmental aid.

It has long been a well known and widely acknowledged problem that “helping” other countries by providing them with free food doesn’t help at all, and simply destroys the national markets (the local food producers can’t sell their own food, this bringing the country into an even worse economical situation). Of course this phenomenon is far more complex, but you know what I’m aiming at here).

The G8 have decided to forthwith support countries with development aid going more or less directly into the food – production (farmers, etc) and thereby supporting the market of the country that is receiving help in order to build their own proper economy. This seems like a very big step to me. Moreoever, it has been agreed upon paying 20 billion US-$ to the poorest countries.

Of course, this is not enough – as some organisations pointed out after the conclusion of the conference – but then again, it looks like a first step.

By the way: Germany is the second biggest donor of development aid (with 0.38% of the gross national product).

– Source: tagesschau.de

– Update (just links, I’ll update text later):

• http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/desertec114.html
• http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/desertec108.html

Probably I shouldn’t, but still: after the “accidents” in 2007 I’m quite happy to tell you how the animal mutilation in Pamplona turned out this year (one man killed, three severely harmed).

Of course I hope it didn’t hit any innocent bystand, but from what I’ve read this is pretty improbable.

Piratey links of the day:

• Death Metal Parrot
• What kind of Pirate are you?
• Check out the band Alestorm – they’re actually doing Pirate Metal :-)
• Pirate Party - go vote for them.

Worth living:

(1) The American music writer and critic James Huneker, in his Chopin biography “The Man and His Music” (1900), about Opus 25, No. 11 in A minor (considered by many musicians to be one of the most stirring and sublime piece of music ever written):

“small-souled men, no matter how agile their fingers, should avoid it”

(2) The American poet Russell Edson about the human brain:

“teetering bulbs of dread and dream”

(dedicated to gyre, gimble and mimsy borogoves)

Awesome (and disturbing) photographs from the elections and the aftermath in Iran.

Okay, let’s try to sum up:

• A friend of mine who lives in Mexico told me that they are having problems for over a week now.
• The German media started reporting about the epidemic (pandemic?) 4 days ago.
• It is not yet clear where the mutation appeared the first time, but I’ve read several times that it is suspected to be Texas or California.
• In Mexico, ~150 people died so far (yesterday the number was ~80), ~1600 are suspected to have the flu. Schools, churches and other public places are closed down.
• There are ~40 confirmed cases in the US (in 5 different states), 6 in Canada, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Spain and a few in New Zealand. Around 20 people are currently under obversation in Spain (not yet diagnosed), and several patients are suspected to have the flu in Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and Italy.
• At Frankfurt/Main Airport, travellers from Mexico with flu symptoms are checked by doctors in the airplanes (!) and brought directly to hospitals. 2 cases so far were negative (Bielefeld, Mainz).
• The swine-flu virus A/H1N1 is a mutated virus that can not only transfer from swine to swine, but also from swine to humans, from humans to other humans and even back from humans to swine. WHO director Margaret Chan said that this flu has the potential of becoming a pandemic.
• According to officials, you can still eat pork. The virus cannot be transmitted via food (if you want to be sure, just fry it properly … the virus denaturates at 72°C).
• The drug Tamiflu seems to have a positive effect on infected patients, but it’s not a 100% cure. The WHO is working on a vaccine, but a working vaccine does not exist at the moment.

For updates, click and scroll down.
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