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PV Shitmaker
July 4, 2015 § 24 Comments
Occasionally people sidle up to me on rides and say, "Listen to this." So I listen. Of course what they really want is for me to blog about it, so I invariably don't, unless of course I do. Yesterday was a double whammy. On the one hand you had the Alto Velo bicycle riding club in Richfolksville, CA, suing the Alto Velo Seasucker bicycle riding club in Wankerville, NC, for trademark infringement.
I was all prepped since it had to do with law and stuff, until Wily tipped me off on the new Garmin 520. "DC Rainmaker has a write-up on it. And you won't believe what it does."
"What does it do?"
"It shows Strava segments in real time so you can 'race' other Strava wankers who are still in bed waiting for a more favorable wind, less rain, or better air pressure."
"Wow," I said.
"Yeah," said Wily. "Just think of all the people who are about to die."
"How do you figure?"
"Are you kidding? Face glued to the stem while your Garmin eggs you on to your top-10 in the 55+ men's age group between 210 and 218.6 pounds? Just as you nail down the 32-second Festersore segment, out pulls a garbage truck and wham! KOC."
"King of the Cemetery, dude."
I went home and looked up the DC Rainmaker's review, which is here. I skimmed it, since ol' DC has a bad case of graphorrhea, and only noted the following, which came after a lengthy explanation of all the computer fiddle-faddle you have to set up in order to race Strava avatars while you train: "With all the prep work taken care of we head out for a ride."
Now I don't know about you, but I ride in the morning when time is tight and "prep work" generally involves unloading a pair of corn-studded bowl breakers, wolfing down a cup of boiling coffee, airing up the tires, and making sure my arm warmers match.
So now you're telling a guy who's lucky to make it out the door without a couple of skid marks in his shorts and TP stuck to his cleat that he has to pre-load a fuggin' Garmin (which he doesn't own) so that he can race an absent stranger while he trains? And isn't "race while you train" one of them oxymoron things, like "driving while you walk"?
The whole thing makes my head hurt because it is the next ripple in the new wave, which is to further divorce humans from each other and wed them more tightly to their computers. I mean, we have a ride that leaves at 6:35 AM pointy sharp every Thursday that is so fucking hard it will make your gallbladder pop out your eyes. The people who do it aren't looking at their fuggin' Garmin, they're either cross-eyed or staring at the wheel in front praying it doesn't speed up, or they're dry heaving or seeing big black spots or lying in the ditch. Oh, and generally they are very familiar with race podiums.
And of the hundreds of serious bikers in the South Bay, there's never more than a dozen who show up, and why should they? With the new Garmin 520 they can compete in comfortable privacy against 0's and 1's; mostly 0's.
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The great empty
May 1, 2015 § 35 Comments
The verdict is in on power meters, Strava, and computerized ride data. They make you faster.
A professionally designed power-based training plan, scrupulously followed, and including adaptations for the times when you are sick, injured, or beset by the things otherwise known as life, will turn you into someone who turns the pedals faster.
What it will also do — and the verdict is in on this as well — is make you unhappier.
If you are a professional, that is a meaningless consequence. Your sponsors don't give you money to ensure your happiness, they do it to ensure your success, which theoretically leads to better sales. But what about YOU?
I have three case studies, not including my own, that I've followed over the last six years. Here they are. Judge for yourself.
Case Study #1: The happy racer
This guy got into cycling from marathoning and "high risk" action sports. When he came onto the scene he fit the profile we've all seen, zooming from freddie to feared hammer in a single season. We'll call him Tom. Tom rode his bicycle with abandon and zest, and saw nothing wrong with Mile 1 breakaways on the Saturday Donut Ride, breakaways that sometimes succeeded but that always inflicted carnage on those left behind, not to mention those who foolishly tried to follow his wheel.
He rode instinctively, and though his instincts were often wrong, occasionally they were right and they put him on the podium. More importantly, the act of riding was an act of irrepressible joy. Win or lose he embodied the same pleasure that you can find in any little kid zooming full speed down the local hill. Not that little kids are allowed to do that anymore, of course.
As part of his "progression," Tom's engineering mind made technology-based training a natural area of investigation. He "computered up," and over a few seasons mastered the fundamentals of power-based training. His natural ability, an already sharpened knife, became a razor. His grasp of training and innate desire to share made him a lightning rod for new riders in his club, with whom he gladly shared training information, workout plans, and swapped training data.
After about three years, Tom no longer took risks on group rides by attacking early. He became calculating and efficient. If the pace exceeded his training targets, he sat up. If it wasn't hard enough, he went off and did something by himself. Tom became a slave to his data. It made him faster, but it also turned the freedom of cycling into the prison of golf, where you are constantly reminded that there are absolute numbers beyond which you can never progress. Tom's beauty, which had always been the bright light in his eyes, had dimmed.
Enslaved to the numbers, when Tom had a really bad year with some significant medical problems that ruined his carefully regulated train-by-the-numbers approach, instead of digging into the mental bucket, bucking up and rallying, he began doing something he'd never done before: throwing in the towel, DNF-ing, quitting. The thing that had always sustained him, his mental attitude and his enjoyment of the sport, had been replaced with numbers and data that had no real strength to carry him through the rough spots other than their unflinching message of inadequacy and defeat. The last time we rode together he was still struggling.
Case Study #2: Escape from New York
I'll call this guy Snake Pliskin. He was whatever type is more aggro than Type A … Type A positive? He also came from a running background and migrated to cycling when his knees gave out. Mentally tough and physically gifted, for Snake the act of riding a bike was the act of riding away from the stresses of work.
Snake had a grind-em-up attitude to riding. He didn't race but he approached every ride as a competition. And though he was often put to the sword on long climbs, when placed in his element of flat or undulating road, preferably with a stiff crosswind, he could put paid to all but the very best of the best. Snake finished his rides spent and satisfied, regardless of whether he was the last man standing. The act of full commitment and giving it his all recharged him for the real battles that remained to be fought in his workaday world.
For him, cycling was the beautiful escape.
Somewhere along the way he became a complete Strava addict. Multiple devices to record rides, pages and pages of KOM's, and a ferocious response on the bike to those who took his trophies. Yet the more he buried himself in the world of Strava, the more he opened himself up to attack, as countless riders took shots — many of which were successful — at his virtual winnings. This of course drove him to ride more, ride harder, create more segments, and further extend his pages of KOM's.
Along the way cycling mutated from a refuge into a prison. With everything measured and quantified, with every foot of roadway a possible place to take a KOM or lose one, he spiraled from the incredible pressures of his job to the equally crushing pressures of riding his bicycle.
As with Tom, Snake's numbers told him that however good he was, on some segment, on some day, someone else was better. The awfulness was reflected in the fact that not only had Snake's escape become a wearying burden, but it was now on full public display. Unlike the real world, where your buddy kicks your ass, rubs your nose in it, and you remind him of the drubbing you gave him the week before, Snake was locked in Strava kudo hell, where anonymous people with strange nicknames have the same right to comment as your closest buddies who suffered stroke for stroke all the way up the climb, and where the interaction is a binary "kudos" or an "uh-oh."
The humanity of friends trading jokes and trading pulls, laughing at the funny shit that happens on a ride, commiserating about life, sharing triumphs, and making fun of each other's foibles had been reduced to a fake interface of 0's and 1's artfully designed to imitate real people, real relationships, real lives. The escape was now the cage and it wasn't even gilded.
The last time I rode with Snake he crushed everyone, grimly.
Case Study #3: The old school
I will call her Harriet. She had been around forever and was still dominating the local women's race scene into her late 40's, outsmarting and intimidating women half her age. She eschewed data and Strava and wattage-based training plans. Harriet's MO was simple: ride and train with the fast men. She couldn't beat them, but she could hang on and it made her strong enough to beat her peers, even when they were young enough to be her daughters.
She paid no attention to technology and refused to join Strava. She'd ridden as a pro and knew three things: how to train, how to win, and how to have fun.
And in her own way, her pleasure in riding a bicycle remained as vibrant and undiminished as it ever was. The last time I rode with her she gapped me out, shouted at me for running a red light, and dusted me in the sprint. Then she pedaled gaily off to work, ready to start the day.
This great empty is hardly confined to cycling. It repeats itself in myriad ways for modern Americans whether they ride bikes or not. When people think about the rise of the machines they imagine cyborgs and androids and sci-fi creations, but those aren't the machines that rule us. The machines are pieces of software that are piped to us by phones, Garmins, desktops, and laptops, they are algorithms that have reduced the complexity of life and human interaction into 0's and 1's.
And they dominate us because at its most basic form, life is that simple. But who wants that level of simplicity? Isn't life better with messiness, with the nonlinear slop and jostle of emotions and feelings and real human contact?
Of course it is, and that's the big lie that the great empty has to spend billions to paper over. When your emotions are tugged by the 0's and 1's that show the precious pug or the newborn of your best friend or the KOM on that 200-yard bike path segment (tailwind, natch), something deep inside is left empty and unfulfilled, the zipless fuck of the digital age. How do I know? Because after the little jolt you have to hit refresh or like or kudo or scroll eternally and in desperation down the feed.
Answers I don't have, but this I know — when you ride a bicycle untethered to 0's and 1's, you may not become any faster. But you will, over time, become happier and more at peace with the ragged, raging, sloppy and jostling world that, despite the best PR efforts of Facebag, Google, SRM, and Strava, hasn't yet learned that reality is denser and more complex than two simple numbers.
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Strava proudly announces first lawsuit of 2015
January 14, 2015 § 20 Comments
Two weeks after revealing the new Empty Cups and Trinkets program for 2015, Strava proudly announced the first major lawsuit of 2015. Puddsy McPutz, age 75, collapsed atop Mt. Landfill, a local KOM in eastern Kentucky situated between the Flemingsburg Meat Packers and the Fleming County Cemetery.
According to the Fleming County Coroner and Horse Veterinarian, Bubba Workman, "Puddsy's ticker done popped. Which is a durn shame." The massive myocardial infarction occurred at exactly 12:01 AM, January 1, 2015, according to Mr. McPutz's Strava data, a few seconds after he took the 2015 KOM for Mt. Landfill. EMS attempts to revive Mr. McPutz with paddles and a few swallows of moonshine were ineffectual, and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to Mr. McPutz's widow, Elvira McPutz (nee Heffalump), "Puddsy found out that Strava was resetting all the KOM's for 2015, so he left the house at 11:50 PM on New Year's Eve, we live just up the street from the landfill, you know, and he finally felt like he had a shot at getting that KOM because we usually get a good southerly wind after sundown which you can tell because that skunky smell from the landfill fills up the house. He wanted to be the first bicycle rider up Mt. Landfill in 2015, that was his goal, to get one of those empty cups he had been telling us about over dinner, we were having his favorite meal, creamed corn with tuna casserole. And it killed him deader than when Reverend Smoots got struck by lightning at the water treatment facility that time he was giving a holy Baptist massage to Mrs. Hutchins while her husband was on a fishing trip."
According to papers filed in the Fleming County Courthouse, McPutz's widow has named Strava as the sole defendant in a wrongful death action, accusing the virtual bike racing company of "encouraging, aiding, abetting, and downright acting like sonsofbitches" with regard to McPutz's death.
Attorney Seffy Tootincamp, local Flemingsburg attorney and noted notary public who filed the lawsuit, said that "Ol' Puddsy ain't never hurt a flea. Them folks at Stravver done made him ride up Mt. Landfill and get hisself killed. And that ain't the half of it. Elvira's sister Hortense Heffalump had been bicycle riding with Puddsy for the last few years, you'd see her straddled all over that bicycle seat spread out like a warm breakfast, 'course it made people talk, what with Hortense havin' split up with Farmer Dinkins back in '69, but Puddsy done said there warn't nothin' to it they was just exercising together even though the way Hortense had all her groceries on display with that skintight bicycling outfit, you know ever' time she threw a leg over that bicycle you was durn near ready call in for a cleanup on Aisle 9, but anyway Hortense said that Puddsy had given up on Stravver several years ago 'cause couldn't nobody get the trophy-dealie for the landfill climb anymore not ever since Hoss Sagbottom had quit lawnmower racin' and got into bicycle Stravver racing, can you believe Hoss rode his bicycle up that dang hill in five minutes flat? It's darn near long as a football field and steep as a wheelchair ramp."
According to attorney Tootincamp, "Them Stravver fellers is gonna have to fork over some real dollars for takin' Puddsy's life like that. He was a good ol' boy, had the best durn still in Flemingsburg, and that's sayin' somethin'."
Fleming County Judge Jimmy Foxworthy was less sanguine about the prospects of the litigation. "I can sort of see where Elvira is coming from, we all liked Puddsy, and his Christmastime Fire on the Mountain Mason Jar Special would grow hair on a carburetor, but from my way of thinking, you tell a jury of your peers in these parts that an old boy died riding a bicycle in his underwear at midnight out by the landfill because of the Internet, and you blame it on anything except the fact that he was a few burritos shy of a full fiesta, well, your average Fleming County jury is probably going to think that Mr. McPutz needed killing. But that's just my opinion."
Attorney Alistair Bilkington, of the Palo Alto high-tech defense firm Hoity, Toity & Preen, was dismissive of the suit. "What we have here is a lack of personal responsibility. Our 21-page, 2-point-type EULA and Waiver and Unqualified Admission of Guilt, which every Strava user must sign, specifically says that 'Everything is my 100% my fault.' It's the most comprehensive waiver in the business. We are confident that the good citizens of Fleming County will wholly reject the baseless claims of the McPutz estate."
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Strava introduces new functionality for the truly hopeless
January 12, 2015 § 52 Comments
I have a really bad imagination, which is why I ride my bike all the time. There's no better way to limn crazy than by delving into the real world. And few parts of reality are as dark, bizarre, and hysterically weird than Strava.
Here's the big blog release for 2015, wherein Strava announces a whole new way to earn valuable cups, crowns, and medals. It's surely not by chance that, unlike the old nonexistent virtual trophy cups, the new ones are empty.
Fortunately I was able to get hold of Annie Vranizan, Strava's Advocacy and Communications Manager, who explained the whole empty cup concept to me in plain English.
CitSB: So now Straddicts can get a whole new set of crowns, cups, and medals?
AV: Yep. It's gonna be awesome!
CitSB: What was wrong with the old ones?
AV: Absolutely nothing. And they'll still be there for you to pore over at 3:00 AM with your favorite box of tissues.
CitSB: So why the new system?
AV: We've heard from many Strava athletes that it's not easy to top a PR set in peak fitness, during a race, or when they were younger. So we've heard that concern and given them something new to strive for. "Strava" means "hopeless" in Finnish, after all. These new empty cups are our way of saying, "You're not getting older. You're as strong as you always were. You're never going to die."
CitSB: Wow. That seems, you know, patently false.
AV: Oh, it is. But these are Straddicts. Their paid memberships depend on keeping the fantasy alive. And we had other problems.
CitSB: Such as?
AV: After several years and thousands of efforts, the KOM's on most segments have become unsurmountable, even for the fellows with $20k rigs, four-man TT teams, and onboard Doppler radar to perfectly time the wind. Even by only showing up to work occasionally, abandoning all pretense of family time, slimming down to 1%, hiring the super-extra-pro-level of online coaching, putting a physician on retainer to manage the EPO-induced blood clumping during sleep, our premium members were realizing that at the end of the day they simply weren't going to snatch back a KOM set by some 22-year-old kid.
CitSB: And?
AV: Well, that's a problem. Most of our premium addicts have got to get one KOM per month, minimum, or they let their subscription lapse. We even toyed with a moped-assist category, but a customer survey nixed that idea.
CitSB: Straddicts refuse to cheat, huh?
AV: Oh, not at all. But it's too complicated to cloak an engine's output so that it mimics the irregularity human-generated wattage.
CitSB: I wasn't aware that it was all about the virtual trinkets. I mean, you can't even hang them on the wall. I thought people really valued Strava for tracking routes and logging mileage.
AV: Well, our unpaid users may. But with regard to logging mileage, Scott Dickson, the first American winner of Paris-Brest-Paris, cracked that problem long ago using a type of technology that frankly stands up pretty well even today.
CitSB: What is that?
AV: I think they call it a "pencil and notepad." I've seen it at the Technology Museum here in Silicon Valley, but don't know of anyone who can actually program it. The other problem is that our premium members can't do what they've always done to earn more virtual trinkets.
CitSB: What's that?
AV: Create new segments. We ran a GPS analysis of North America and found that, in North County San Diego for example, every roadway, driveway, dirt trail, and parking lot has been broken down into 1-meter Strava segments. There are over 12 billion segments there. And every segment has a leaderboard thousands of riders deep.
CitSB: Surely there are some uncreated segments from, say, the front door of the apartment on the 25th Floor to the breaker box on the 12th?
AV: Possibly. But our analytics show that premium members prize competition with other riders. There will always be a place on Strava for secret segments that only you can ride, but most addicts want the thrill of combat. It's all about sending and receiving "the letter," you know?
CitSB: So why don't they just race? CBR has a great crit coming this Sunday. I think for $35 bucks you can actually race your bike against real people. And it's cheaper than Strava. And the trinkets are mostly edible.
AV: Racing is too dangerous for Straddicts, and often times a premium member who is really good at his age-weight-gender category on Strava turns out to be a lummoxing sack of shit in a real bike race. And it hurts their feelings when they get dropped.
CitSB: I see. So why don't they train harder and race more so they don't get dropped?
AV: Let me give you an example.
CitSB: Okay.
AV: Let's say you could choose between getting your face punched so hard that it rams your front teeth so far up into the gums that they punctured the lower part of your skull and lodge into your brain. Or, you could go a Thai massage and have someone cover your body in oil, rub you down for a few bucks in all the right places, and tell you you look like a movie star. Which would you choose?
CitSB: Well, that's easy, because I'm a bike racer.
AV: Right? But our premium members aren't. That's why they like Strava. As long as they get a virtual empty trinket they'll keep paying the monthly fee because there's always a happy ending.
CitSB: Just like the Thai massage?
AV: Exactly.
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10 awesome cycling resolutions you can actually keep for 2015
January 7, 2015 § 58 Comments
Okay, now that you've ditched all those un-fun resolutions that you were never going to do anyway, we can focus on making 2015 the best year ever for your profamateur cycling career. There is at least one thing on this list you can do, guaranteed.
- Remember & do. Think back about what it was that got you into cycling. Remember that awesome thing you experienced, whatever it was? Go out and do a ride like that.
- Put a name to that face. You know that wanker/wankette who you see on lots of the group rides but whose name you don't know? Guess what — a person's name is the most important and beautiful word in the world to her. Learn it. Say it. Remember it. Chances are that she will say your favorite word in the world back to you.
- Ride a bike with your S/O. Notice I said "ride a bike," not "go cycling." This means several things: No lycra. No bike that you can resell on Craigslist for more than $75. Sneakers or flip-flops. Max speed 11 mph. The ride must also have a point that has nothing to do with riding, i.e. coffee, ice cream, or your favorite S&M clothing shop.
- Pet a baby seal. Remember how you used to show up at your first group rides? Palms sweating. Chamois already anointed with a stray pellet of poop. No sleep the night before. Everyone looked like a top profamateur. Everyone knew everyone … except you. Next time you're at a ride, find the baby seal and give it a pet. It will love you forever and may even follow you home.
- Share a secret tip. Oh, come on. You've got a bunch of them. So what if they don't really work? Better yet, so what if they do? Pull aside your favorite wanker on the next ride and share the secret tip. One time Douggie even told me his secret chain-cleaning trick. I caught hell for putting it in the dishwasher, but it sure came out clean.
- Wave or say "hi." On one of your 359 rides in 2015, pretend that one of them isn't the most important training ride you've ever done, upon which your entire profamateur + Strava legacy will depend. Then, on that one ride, wave at someone. It can be anyone. Another rider, a pedestrian, a jogger, a cager, or one of the guys doing yardwork in PV. Yeah, they will smile and wave back because — newsflash! — they're people, too! Then you can go back to your crucial training.
- Pick and give. Select five cycling items you haven't used since '79 (but not that wool jersey with the moth holes the size of Dallas and the green mold on the armpits). Put it on Craigslist or eBay for one cent. Someone will not only want it, they will actually use it. Done.
- Ride and de-load. Take a fantastic ride and refuse to upload it to Strava. Better yet, do the whole ride without a Garmin or iPhone ride app. I know that's asking a lot …
- Learn your history. Buy a book about cycling and read it, preferably something that includes the words "Merckx" and "Roubaix."
- Eat a cheeseburger. See? I told you there was one resolution on this list you could keep.
There you have it — a slew of wholesome cycling activities plus a cheeseburger. It's gonna be a great year.
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Phone home
September 28, 2014 § 22 Comments
It had been an epic, bitter, full-gas NPR replete with unhappy blabberwankers, squealing baby seals looking for their freshly stripped pelts, fraudsters who cut the course and flipped it before the turnaround in order to catch the break, and the usual collection of complainers and whiners who missed the split, blaming their weakness on the "stoplight breakaway" and the usual complaint of non-racers who object to September beatdowns — "It's the OFF SEASON!"
We swirled up to the Center of the Known Universe. Most ordered coffee. I leaned against the plate glass seated on the bricks, waiting for the throbbing in my legs to subside. Within minutes people were seated alongside with their phones out.
There wasn't much conversation at first because everyone had to check email, then look at missed calls and figure out which excuse to use when they finally phoned in around ten. "I was in a meeting." "There wasn't any cell coverage." "I was on the phone with a client."
And of course Facebag had to be checked, texts had to be sent, and Strava had to be carefully reviewed. Some people kept their phones on their lap the entire time we congregated. One or two put them away. Almost everyone sporadically checked, interrupting conversations to gaze down at kudos and incoming dickpics.
Not me. I didn't have my phone. It was sitting on the chest of drawers next to my bed. That's where it stays nowadays when I ride.
I remember back when there were no cell phones. After a ride, or during a break, the Violet Crown guys would talk. Or smoke a big, fat joint. Usually both. Whatever the protocol, it always involved lots of gab. Sitting down after a ride meant rehashing the ride, inventing new rumors, or talking shit about a good friend who happened to be absent.
Compared to those conversations, the ones nowadays aren't as much fun, and I think it's because the flow of talk gets constantly broken up by constant cell phone monitoring. The fact is that no one has anything important to do on a cell phone in the morning. If they did, they wouldn't be on a bike. And there's something about conversation that, like a bike ride, requires a certain amount of warm-up. Then, once you're warmed up, you sort of get going. It doesn't work very well — like riding — when every few seconds or minutes the other person is checking his screen.
"But what do you do when you can't get in touch with someone who you're trying to meet for a ride?" is a common question. Back in the day we all knew where to meet, and if someone didn't show up, you didn't ride with him that day. It was pretty simple.
"But what do you do if you have an accident or your bike breaks or you have an emergency?" Back in the day we generally waited until someone called an ambulance, or we bled out, or we flagged down another rider for a tool or a tube. That was pretty simple, too.
"But what do you do if something happens at work or your wife needs you?" Back in the day we ignored that shit when we rode. It was one of the main reasons we cycled.
Since shedding my power meter, my Garmin, and now my iPhone, my riding is a lot more peaceful. More importantly, I'm about half a pound lighter on the bike. Now that matters.
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The decomposing dinosaur
August 15, 2014 § 35 Comments
Word on the street is that USA Cycling has become very concerned about the precipitous drop-off in the number of idiots who participate in masters racing, and they are going to convene some kind of meeting to identify the problems and propose solutions.
That's too bad. They should have just called me. But since they didn't, I've written this very helpful little post to guide them on their way.
First, let's understand the landscape of masters racing: It is dead and, like T-rex, is never coming back. Rather, it is laying in a big heap and decomposing while those who can stand the stench still saddle up and pedal around the rotting corpse.
What killed masters racing?
- De-innovation. The only difference between bike racing today and bike racing in 1984 is … nothing. Imagine a business model that is the same today, with the identical approach to the customer, service, product, and cost, as it was in 1984. There's a way to spell the name of companies like that: "b-a-n-k-r-u-p-t."
- Taxation. While the promoters' and riders' costs rose, USA Cycling continued to take larger and larger pieces of the pie. That USA Cycling officials are paid even a penny is a sorry joke. They should volunteer and do it for the love of the sport or get the hell out. Oh, wait a minute … what love of the sport? Many of them don't even ride.
- Cost. In 1984 you could race the best equipment for the equivalent of about $4,000 in 2014 dollars — including kit, shoes, spare wheels, and a bike that was essentially unbreakable, with wheels that were likewise difficult to damage. A top race bike now retails for about $9k. Kit and shoes another $1k. Oh, and it's all disposable and very easily broken. Dog forbid you crash, because those Zipp 808's retail for about $3k. And let's not forget tires, which can cost more than new tires for a car and last for a fraction of the time. What business model triples the cost and actually lowers the value to the consumer?
- Poverty. In 1984, a solid middle class income was $27,393. In 2014 dollars, that's $63,019. Today's middle class income in that same bracket? $64,582. Yep. In thirty years the biggest consumer for bike racing has seen his income go up less than $1,500, while the cost of bike crap has gone up (conservatively) $6,000. Let's see. Should I pay for food, rent, healthcare, education, or … bike racing? Tough decision for a few. But only a few.
- Buzzkill. The professionalization of masters racing has made it very serious. Serious people like to yell and shout and create heaps of drama at races. Not-so-serious people, which is pretty much everyone else, don't really like spending their weekend getting yelled at or abused. So they stay home while a few self-important pricks strut around as if what they did in a Sunday crit really mattered.
- Hopelessness. In the 1/2/3/4/5 categories, there's always a shuffle. Someone younger is always coming up through the ranks and knocking off the older riders. It's the cycle of life. But not in masters racing. Once you race an age category, the same people who win will always be the same people who win — from age 35 to age 75 — so you have forty years of getting beaten by the same people over and over and over and over again. Good times!
- Time. We have less of it, bike racing requires more. Why do we have less time? Because of poverty. We're working more to pay for essentials, and masters bike racing isn't an essential.
- Rewards. What are they, again? There's no money. There are no trophies. No one gets a juice box. It's just the "fun" of competition. Well, that works for two kinds of people: the perennial winners who like staving everyone else's head in, and the perennial losers who don't mind losing. That's a customer base of about 12 people, by the way.
- Cheating. Masters racers cheat, and promoters, who are taxed to the teeth by USA Cycling, and struggling under huge operating costs, can't afford drug testing. So the cheaters get away with it, and the non-cheaters blame everyone who wins on "doping."
- Safety. USA Cycling races are horribly dangerous compared to other leisure activities available to elderly men with leaky prostates. USA Cycling encourages risky behavior when its PAID officials fail to aggressively enforce rules against chopping, dive-bombing, elbow throwing, bar banging, post-race face-punching, etc.
However much all of these factors have brought low the mighty dinosaur, none has inflicted the mortal wound. The true killer not just of masters racing, but of bike racing in general, is Strava. And folks, Strava is here to stay.
Strava offers everything to the competitive cyclist except reality. It is free. It rewards you. It lets you set up special courses and categories that YOU can win, or at least get "on the leader board." It is safe. Unlike USA Cycling, whose officials in SoCal don't do squat for race safety, Strava bans segments that are reported as dangerous.
Plus, with Strava you don't have to travel, and every day is a bike race. Strava lets you brag to your friends, compete with little "I stole your KOM" tits-for-tats, and doesn't require any bike handling skills. On Strava, everybody's a Cat 1.
The only downside to Strava, of course, is that it's completely fake and that it eliminates the one thing that makes a bike race a true competition: Everyone has to race at the same day on the same course at the same time. But it's the virtual, inauthentic nature of Strava that real bike racing can't compete with.
And the icing on the cake? When's the last time your wife ever complained about you going out to take someone's KOM?
RIP, masters racing. It was sort of nice known' ya.
Additional participants in the mercy killing:
11. Cost Plus. In addition to the cost of a road bike, you now also need a time trial bike if you're going to do 3-day races with a TT. Add $10k. Also, you will need a power meter ($1k – $4k), a computer ($500), and a set of race wheels to go with your training wheels ($2k). And a coach, because you can't beat guys who train 30 hours a week just by riding hard. Trust me on that last one.
12. "The Competition." In addition to Strava, whose value proposition overwhelms yours, in the last 30 years there has been an incredible proliferation of fun, challenging, "non-race" rides that are effectively unsanctioned races. In LA alone you can do the NPR on Tuesday morning (always race pace), the Major Motion ride on Tuesday evening (always race pace), the Amalfi Ride on Thursday morning (race pace, but with stops), the Rose Bowl Ride (pure race), the M500 (pure race), the Donut Ride (race), the Montrose Ride (race with stoplights) … and that doesn't even count the Grand Fondos, century rides, and countless other road rides where you can mix it up without paying a fortune, driving across the country, and paying a fortune. Did I mention paying a fortune?
13. "The Competition" v. 2. Other types of racing have increased in popularity and they compete with USAC road events. That's cyclocross and mountain bike racing. They have a better vibe. More interesting venues. More spectators. Better officiating. Safe courses. They're cheaper and closer to home and at least for 'cross the equipment is a lot cheaper and there's less of it.
14. Pain. Road racing is too hard. People on training rides cut the ride, do a "B" ride, refuse to do new challenging additions. Why? Because they are weak and lazy and entitled and they don't want to get their nuts pounded off with the handle of a chisel. The San Marcos crit (35 starters in the 35+, 19 finishers), was so miserably awful that I contemplated quitting every lap. And I was in the 45+. Road racing is worse and harder. It's grueling and it goes on for hours. People don't want that anymore. They want something that hurts a little bit, but not too much — certainly they don't want to submit to 30-degree sleet at Devil's Punchbowl for 2.5 hours, with 6k of elevation per lap, riding alone. The most important thing is that they look good, don't wind up in the ICU or a wheelchair, and that for dog's sake they don't break their equipment. Because unlike brains and body parts, an expensive bike nowadays can't be replaced.


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Taz responds to JBL
A post on Twitter where Taz responds to JBL, who stated that the former ECW Heavyweight Champion hated he and Michael Cole.
December 29, 2015
Holly Holm responds to Taz
While doing an interview on the Larry King Now show, Holly Holm was asked about allegations from Taz, who stated that he felt the championship fight with Ronda Rousey was fixed. Holm was adamant in saying that UFC fights will never be fixed. The new champion also stated that anyone involved in a fixed MMA fight will more than likely be banned for life, so the risk is too high for anyone to even consider it.
November 22, 2015
Taz on Lou Thesz
Taz receiving heat
Earlier today, Taz stated that he felt that Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm had fixed their main event fight over the weekend. Well, that theory did not sit well with people. The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion received a ton of criticism through social media. To his credit, Taz opted not to hide from them. Instead, he responded to many of the people who were bashing him for his opinions.
November 16, 2015
Taz on Ronda Rousey
During his latest podcast show, Taz shocked the world when he stated that the fight between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm was fixed. The former ECW star feels that UFC is purposely setting things up because Rousey was going to be taking some time away from the sport. Ronda is scheduled to film a movie soon. Taz thinks that Dana White opted to do this to set up a huge moneymaking rematch.
November 16, 2015
Vince McMahon private plane
During a recent interview, Taz talked about an unwritten rule on the Vince McMahon private plane. He stated that no one was allowed to sleep on overnight trips unless McMahon himself was asleep as well. Otherwise, he expects everyone to stay awake and work as hard as he does. The only exception to the rule was if you were an in ring performer. McMahon did not mind them sleeping on the private plane.
November 15, 2015
Shane McMahon added padding
During his podcast interview, Taz provided the internet wrestling community with yet another reason to like Shane McMahon. While talking to the commentators one day, McMahon noticed that there were no padding by the announce tables. There was a big spot planned at the pay per view that would see the destruction of those tables. Since he was concerned about the safety of the performers, he started adding padding to the area.
October 23, 2015
Taz on Nash and Punk
Dana White caused quite the controversy when he said that professional wrestling was fake. It elicited quite the rage from Taz. When asked how he felt about Kevin Nash and CM Punk using the same term to describe the industry, the ECW legend stated that he was fine with that because Nash and Punk have paid their dues to the business. They have sacrificed their bodies to entertain the fans for years.
August 9, 2015
Taz on leaving TNA
Booker T podcast show
CBS picked up a couple of new podcast shows to add to their lineup, and one of them happens to be a familiar voice to anyone that watches WWE on a weekly basis. Booker T has been signed to a contract, and he will be providing the network with his typical brand of content. Heated Conversation will now air on the same network that also picked up the podcast show produced by Taz. The new industry has done well for professional wrestlers.
April 29, 2015

subset: commoncrawl


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Listening Room
Our Listening Room provides audio tracks of Bryan's recent interviews, speaking engagements, and recorded messages. If you are interested in having Bryan speak at your event, please contact us.
To share his discernments with as many people as possible, Bryan is increasingly using more public vehicles to voice messages. From public conference speeches to radio and television appearances, he spreads knowledge to people around the world. When possible, links to these speeches and appearances will be posted and archived in the Listening Room.
|Broadcast Description
|October 3, 2010
Is There Life Elsewhere in the Universe
Human Life, Souls and Dreams
|September 26, 2010
Does Biology Function on a Quantum Level
Does Biology Function on a Quantum Level
|September 19, 2010
What Is the Universe Made Of: 101
What Is the Universe Made Of: 101
|September 12, 2010
How Did the Universe Begin
How Did the Universe Begin
|September 5, 2010
Does Time Exist?
Interview with Ret. Colonel Pat Stogran
|August 29, 2010
The Benefit of Forgiveness
The Benefit of Forgiveness
|August 22, 2010
Message to Pope Benedict XVI
Message to Pope Benedict XVI and All Priests
|August 15, 2010
Fractured Souls: A Deeper Understanding
Interview: Microbiologist Dr. Shiv Chopra Part 1
|August 8, 2010
Getting Rid of Religious False Beliefs
What Truth Does God Learn Through His Creation?
|August 1, 2010
Giving Your Power Away: A Deeper Understanding
The Conscious Stem Cell
|July 18, 2010
9 Ways to Stop China from Conquering the World
Address to the President of the People's Republic of China Hu Jintao
|July 11, 2010
Father Cords
Vaccines: The Mercury (Thiomersal) Issue
|July 4, 2010
What Are Spiritual Cords?
Interview: Barbara Loe Fisher Co-founder National Vaccine Information Center
|June 27, 2010
World Healthcare: What Is Needed
9 Reasons Why Canada Should Not Abandon Its Currency
|June 20, 2010
The False Beliefs of Simon Peter
Interview with Kelly and Her Daughter


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Plans are already underway in Spokane, Washington for the marijuana shops that should be coming about a year from now under the state's new recreational marijuana legalization law.
City Councilman Jon Snyder says the city needs to identify where shops can go, following regulations in the new Washington law that will keep them 1,000 feet away from schools, playgrounds, parks, libraries and transit centers.
Snyder tells KREM ( http://bit.ly/UFPjOO) the city has a lot of work to do to protect the community and establish rules for what could be a lucrative business.
It's never too early for cities and towns in Washington – and Colorado for that matter – to start thinking about what they are going to do. Legal marijuana sales are going to be a reality in these states, so now is the time to plan locations, taxes, etc.
Once an abstract concept, marijuana legalization is getting real. This is where the rubber meets the road, and all the other cliches you can think of. How well WA and CO can get it done will determine how fast other states follow the same path.
– make sure you check out our brand new Forums and our "Stop The Ban in L.A." Facebook page!


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The Daily Five: Reasons Why This Was the Best Gen Ever
If you're reading this, you're probably well aware that E3 will be in full blast just one week from today. We'll be hearing the latest from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and their third-party partners as they give us the skinny on all manner of next-gen goodness. Of course, we'll have all of that news for you right here when it breaks.
However, E3 will mark the beginning of the end for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Those systems will still be supported for a while after the PS4 and Xbox One are out, of course, but they'll soon be living on borrowed time.
Looking back, we'd wager that this was the greatest console generation gaming has ever seen. And wouldn't you know it, we have five reasons why.
Multiplayer Comes Into Its Own
After getting a head start with Xbox Live with the original Xbox, the service really came into its own when it made the leap to Xbox 360. Microsoft's service provides mostly reliable connections between players, while also offering great touches like seamless messaging, party chat, and almighty Achievements.
Despite a rocky start, PlayStation Network is no slouch. While it's missing a few features that have pushed Xbox Live over the edge, PSN still offers solid multiplayer experiences at no cost to the player. And while Trophies are clearly a response to Achievements, Sony managed to put a neat RPG twist to their system.
No one like playing on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, though. Good riddance to bad rubbish on that front.
The Great Indie Explosion
Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Steam have provided havens for smaller developers to get their wares in front of the gaming public, and the result has been a thriving independent scene unlike any before it.
These digital marketplaces have been host to an enormous variety of different games that might not have been able to find a home otherwise. There are smash hits like Minecraft, Trials HD, and Castle Crashers. Critical darlings such as The Walking Dead, Limbo, Braid, and Journey. Cult hits such as the PixelJunk series and Dead Nation. No matter your platform of choice, indie studios were churning out great games like nobody's business.
Not so much on the Wii Shop, though. That could have been handled better.
Games Have Never Been Cheaper
Despite costs going up in other areas of our lives, the costs associated with buying games has been steady for years, even going down in some cases. N64 games as high as $80. SNES and Genesis games going for $100! With current-gen games going down in price a month after their release, that gap seems otherworldly.
Besides the cost of a standard retail game, though, there are other ways for frugal gamers to save money. Steam always has outrageous sales, of course, but Sony has made major strides with their PlayStation Plus service by offering free games and deep discounts for a scant $50 per year. Microsoft has gotten much better about offering discounts on digital games this year as well.
Nintendo's first-party Wii games took years to go down in price, though, and once again the Wii Shop was terribly neglected. I swear I've got positive things about Nintendo's machine soon.
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kuttiesexy 4 years 47 weeks
hello peeps !new in d group
gypsygenre 5 years 1 week
Hey all, just stopping through since I'm a new face to both SS and the group! Excited though, this should be fun!


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waste stream Companies in Florida
ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd
based in Horsham, UNITED KINGDOM
ERG (Air Pollution Control) Ltd is a leading supplier of air pollution control systems with a successful 30+ year history. We provide turn-key systems to give the best technical solution for the lowest capital and running costs. We have installed over 600 systems globally. To help you comply with emission regulations, we can draw on an unrivalled range of solutions. ...
based in Dartmouth, NOVA SCOTIA (CANADA)
Envirosystems has been helping Canadian businesses manage their environmental needs since 1995. Over that time we have grown into one of the most advanced environmental management companies in North America.Envirosystems provides the Expertise, Resources and Innovation necessary to implement measures that are: Environmentally sound, Economically viable and Socially ...
ERA Environmental Consulting, Inc.
based in Montreal, QUEBEC (CANADA)
Since 1995, ERA Environmental Consulting, Inc. has been providing Environmental, Health & Safety software solutions to businesses ranging from small enterprises to Fortune 500 corporations. You can find ERA`s software being implemented across virtually every industrial sector in North America. ERA`s mission is to offer reliable, user friendly, affordable tools to help ...
econ industries GmbH
based in Starnberg, GERMANY
econ industries is a globally working, German based company specialized on developing and producing machinery for the treatment of hazardous and industrial waste. Following our slogan "imagine - zero industrial waste" highest rates in resources recovery and minimization of waste streams is characteristic for all our plants.Our plants mostly utilize the VacuDry® vacuum ...
Gasmet Technologies Oy
based in Helsinki, FINLAND
Gasmet Technologies is a leading manufacturer of gas monitoring instruments and systems for industrial and environmental applications including continuous emissions monitoring (power plants, waste incinerators, cement kilns etc.) stack testing / comparison measurements, process control, industrial hygiene / indoor air quality, engine exhaust gas, semiconductor ...
ANDRITZ Separation - a division of the Andritz Group
based in Graz, AUSTRIA
ANDRITZ Separation, trusted partner for process solutions for waste water treatment. There is a wide range of challenges in municipal drinking water and waste water treatment: whereas in developing countries the focus is often on setting up a base structure for drinking water and wastewater, in industrialized countries water quality, efficiency and recycling of residual ...
Solids Control Services
based in Aberdeen, UNITED KINGDOM
Solids Control Services (SCS) is a leading independent company, specialising in the worldwide supply of reliable, high quality centrifuge based liquid solid separation systems and associated services. Designed for a broad spectrum of applications (specialising in flammable materials and potentially explosive areas), our treatment systems are available for sale, hire or ...
Bionomic Industries Inc.
based in Mahwah, NEW JERSEY (USA)
Bionomic Industries' recently redesigned website. We appreciate your interest in our company and hope you find our new site user-friendly, most informative and helpful in solving your present or future air pollution, emission control, product or waste heat recovery application. As the dominant worldwide leader in providing conventional and advanced gas absorption, ...
Genesis Water Technologies, Inc
based in Maitland, FLORIDA (USA)
Genesis Water Technologies, Inc. is a USA based manufacturer of advanced, innovative and sustainable treatment solutions for applications in process water, drinking water, water reuse and waste water to our valued clients and collaboration partners worldwide.
Immacutec Systems Technologies Inc.
based in Toronto, ONTARIO (CANADA)
Immacutec delivers the complete portrait of an organization's solid waste stream. We design and perform third party waste generation studies of varying size and complexity. This involves characterizing, quantifying, reporting and monitoring the contents, generation trends and disposal activities of all operations. Our measured and audited resource management data ...


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The Woodland City Council narrowly approved a 6.5 percent utility tax to raise money to bolster the city's fire department, but it won't be using the money to hire a city administrator.
In Monday's 4-3 vote, council members Marshal Allen, John Burke and Susan Humbyrd opposed the tax, saying they did not want to impose a new burden on people already struggling to make ends meet.
"This is going to come out of a lot of people's pockets that can't afford it," Allen said. "I can't in all humanity accept this and vote for this."
Council members Scott Perry, Benjamin Fredricks, Al Swindell and Marilee McCall voted for the tax, which is expected to raise enough to hire a part-time position to ensure two responders are available in the fire department at all times.
"It's not a popular stance, but I've looked at several other options and I've looked at the budget. I don't see any other options," McCall said Monday night. "I don't want to live here if (the fire department) is not funded to where it's requested."
Before the tax takes effect, the council must approve it a second time. A vote is expected at its next meeting in January.
Fire Chief Michael Jackson told the council earlier this month that calls have increased 10 percent in the last year and 20 percent during the last couple years, but funding has not increased. As a result, response times have risen, and in some cases only a single firefighter responds to emergency medical calls.
Tax supporters also argued the city can no longer rely on the volunteer department
"It was a good system for many years," Swindell said. "But we've outgrown that. We're not doing our job if we don't fund this. It's critically important for our city."
Councilman Fredricks scuttled his request that some of the expected $200,000 in revenue from the utility tax be used to hire a paid city administrator. A consultant has recommended that the city hire one to improve operations, but the council has long balked at the idea. Fredricks still supports the concept, but he backed off Monday due to lack of council support.
If it gets final approval, the new tax would come on top of a 0.1 percent sales tax voters approved in November to build a 10,000-square-foot police station on Scott Avenue. The tax equates to a penny on a $10 purchase. Water rates also are going up 7 percent.
The city council Monday also passed the city's $14.2 million 2012 budget after reinstalling a code enforcement position that was slated to be cut. However, some council members admitted that the budget was a work in progress and would be revised in January.


text: I have a small question about torrents in my mind. I have a torrent file which has number of videos added to it. I have downloaded some videos from the torrent file on my computer but the network card of the computer has gone bad and hence there is no internet connectivity on the computer. So I want to know if it is possible to transfer a torrent from one computer to another for continuing the download? Please share some information about this issue. Thanks in advance.


text:
AUSTIN, Texas — Whole Foods Market said last week that all personal care products and cosmetics making an "organic" claim sold in its U.S. stores must be third-party certified by June 1, 2011. Suppliers who are making an "organic" claim have until Aug. 1, 2010, to submit their plans for compliance and until June 1, 2011, to be in full compliance. Under the new guideline, all products making an "organic" product claim (e.g., "organic shampoo") must be certified to the U.S. Department of ...
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May 24, 2016
Florida's Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings was in Panama City Friday night, and told a large group it's never too early to start reading to your children.
Jennings was in town promoting literacy and helping raise money for a local "Books for Babies" program that's being sponsored by Bay County's Federation of Republican Women.
The idea is to get new mothers to read to their babies.
Lt. Gov. Jennings told her local audience since Gov. Bush has taken office literacy among school aged children has gone up, but there is always room for improvement.
She says she's excited to promote "Books for Babies."
"These new books will go to the mothers of newborns. Research has shown the sound of a mother's or father's voice stimulates early learning and literacy skills."
Proceeds from the fundraiser will help buy even more baby books. Lt. Gov. Jennings says plans are to pass out the baby books to new mothers at local hospitals.
Click Here to access the online Public Inspection File
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What does strange press release from 'Mad Men' mean?
Two minutes after the end of Sunday's "Mad Men" episode - filled with personal drama, some of it involving, Pete, Bob, Ted and Peggy - AMC, I presume sent out this press release.
With Peggy listed as the contact, it is presumably the press release Peggy was told to prepare a few weeks ago on the show, announcing the new name of the merged advertising agency. »Read Full Blog Post(3)
Skylight finds power of human spirit in 'El Cimarron'
Esteban Montejo, a onetime Cuban slave who lived to be 113, loved trees and the forests that held them. It's therefore no accident that Lisa Schlenker's scenic design for the just-opened Skylight Music Theatre production of "El Cimarrón" — Hans Werner Henze's musical adaptation of Montejo's remarkable autobiography — revolves around a massive tree.
Trees, Montejo continually suggests, are not just alive. They're also analogous to people, with their shadows expressly linked in his autobiography to human spirits. »Read Full Article
Doc Severinsen charms during return to MSO
Doc Severinsen returned to the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Pops stage Friday evening with trumpet and flugelhorn in hand.
The former MSO Pops conductor appeared as a soloist on a program of jazz standards led by conductor Steven Reineke. The program featured soprano Ashley Brown and an MSO augmented by five saxes and a four-piece jazz combo. »Read Full Article
With Eatery on Farwell closed, owner looks to other east side sites and plans a Muskego restaurant
Journal Sentinel photo »Read Full Blog Post


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Ok - here we are for cycle number 4 - I really hope this is our month!! Anyone one else close to me?
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Joseph Addison
Sarah - Single Mom to: Emilie (12.08.98) & Nicholas (08.12.02)
My newest little girl "Minions", Chloe & Sophia born 07.21.13!!
I'm 5 DPO - I'm hoping for a BFP on our wedding anniversary on November 6th!!
I think I'm 2 or 3 DPO today :) Hoping to test around Nov 12th!
Our angel, Rose Marie (07/11/12 - Triploidy)
Heather + DH, 6/19/07
Three-time HG Survivor
4 DPO here! I'm hoping this is our month b/c my lucky numbers are my birthday 4/17, and today I'm 4DPO on CD17! :) So anxious... I have wondfos, and a few other tests I think on hand. What day are you testing?
Wife to TJ (09/05)
Mom to Isabella (c/s 05/06), Alivia (RCS 09/07), Eliana (NUVBA2C 8/13: 9 lbs, 14 oz)
Step-mom to Johnny-22, Josh-18, Joey-17, Myah-12
I'm also on my 4th cycle. First pos OPK was on Friday...so I'm around 2 DPO or so.
I've been having some sharp pains, like cramps but slightly different. Not sure what it is...but we'll see!
Good Luck Ladies!
First Time Mom & Dad of Baby Addison. Born January 17th 2014.
I'm about 3 DPO also. I don't know exactly because I didn't do OPK this month but for the last 3 months it was always positive on CD 16. I'm going to test11/6. Good luck everyone!!
Girls - I have wasted so many tests through this process - this time I am going to wait until AF is actually late. She should come around Nov 8th or 9th. WIshing all of you lots of baby dust!!! So far I've had some weird pains - and lots of gas.
What about all of you? Any symptoms yet?
Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for. Joseph Addison


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50x Combo
|Complete a combo of 50 moves (any play mode, any character)
This achievement can be done at many different times throughout the game but is easiest done during a sequence like the one in the video below. It is best to get the FreeFlow Focus Combat upgrade to increase movement speed and reaction times as well as the Critical Strikes upgrade that increases the combo by x2 for each successful hit.
|Rate this achievement
|Average Rating (Based on 5 votes)
|Comment #1 by zaventem
Thursday, September 01, 2011 @ 07:00:39 PM
This is going to be hard..
|Comment #2 by Kaizoku Kaede
Thursday, September 01, 2011 @ 08:56:46 PM
This one took me an embarrassingly long time to get in the first game. -:/ Many, many reloads outside the elevators, trying to get a good run riding the titan-enhanced thugs. I may have screamed once or twice. -:/ Here we go again.
|Comment #3 by dimastoj
Thursday, September 01, 2011 @ 10:28:19 PM
|Comment #4 by GrislyDW13
Thursday, September 01, 2011 @ 11:21:16 PM
Finally... a REAL Challenge! *McGrin*
|Comment #5 by Ag3nt471986
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 04:53:22 AM
i did this a handful of times in the challenges in the first game, should be easy
|Comment #6 by MONST3R KILL
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 05:12:01 AM
i beat the first game 4 different time i.e 2 for 360 and 2 for pc. Easy peesey
|Comment #7 by LeeJ2512
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 07:27:51 AM
By the sounds of it this sounds easy for Catwoman, as apparently she is a lot faster than batman :S
|Comment #8 by Crims0nPenguin
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 09:28:27 AM
I got it numerous times in the original the evade(A,A) was helpful for keeping the combos going
|Comment #9 by DanielCooper62
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 12:23:27 PM
also it's only 5g suggesting that it may not be THAT hard?
|Comment #10 by GhostCamarox75
Friday, September 02, 2011 @ 05:37:24 PM
This is gonna be so easy especially on challenge maps. Seriously people get like
80+ combos on the Arkham Asylum maps so this should hopefully be the same
|Comment #11 by XxKILLA KWAKExX
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 @ 01:41:59 PM
Also the fights in the main game itself are going to be massive. Just look at the fight you have in the iceberg lounge. As long as you get the combat down you should have no problem with this.
|Comment #12 by reno2200
Friday, September 16, 2011 @ 06:24:54 PM
I preordered the Collector's Ed of Arkham Asylum and got a massive combo on the Crime Alley map that came with it. Hopefully, since I'm preordering City Collector's, there will be another easy map to get it on :P
Hopefully when you counter two people at once, it counts as a double move (i.e. +2 to the multiplier) and not a single awesome move. With Batman's new moves and gadget inclusion, it might be a bit easier this time around.
|Comment #13 by mrasskicker
Thursday, September 29, 2011 @ 12:07:48 PM
|Comment #14 by Buruma
Friday, September 30, 2011 @ 11:28:40 AM
Not again. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?! >_
|Comment #15 by Awesome9870
Tuesday, October 04, 2011 @ 07:00:08 PM
Im getting the Joker's Funhouse and fighting Joker after the 100x combo
|Comment #16 by billnye69
Saturday, October 08, 2011 @ 09:12:33 PM
The funny thing is that I found this one hard in the first game but after I did it the first time, I did it many more times with ease. lol
|Comment #17 by envint251
Thursday, October 13, 2011 @ 12:01:36 PM
After giving up on trying to get the one in Batman: AA until a few weeks ago, I'm really not looking forward to this again! Loved the game (and have this one preordered) but I am so crap at building up combos. Looks like I can say goodbye to the combat medals this time around too!
|Comment #18 by GrislyDW13
Tuesday, October 18, 2011 @ 04:10:20 AM
HA! First Achievement I got!
T'was easy as pie. *McGrin*
|Comment #19 by Rafie
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 @ 10:29:31 AM
This achievement was extremely easy. Most of you who are thinking the worst already will probably do this without even thinking of it.
|Comment #20 by Crims0nPenguin
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 @ 06:28:18 PM
Wow ridiculously easy... anyone having trouble with it can try carnival challenge map pack(dlc) it has infinite amounts of people
|Comment #21 by Predalien90
Thursday, October 20, 2011 @ 06:29:33 AM
After getting the upgrade that makes all critical strikes count for 2, getting at least 50 becomes very easy.
|Comment #22 by AirborneRichard
Saturday, October 22, 2011 @ 12:03:53 PM
It was a pain to get in rhe first game, but then you did get more achievement points now its only 5G so i,m geussing its much easier this time around. I loved AA, i not got this one yet but i hear its alot more open world now then AA was. That should be great then.
|Comment #23 by JustRomanAround
Sunday, October 23, 2011 @ 06:37:32 AM
Hmm, finding this a lot harder than i did in Asylum - currently my highest is 37 and I am 70% of the way through the game! it's harder now that bad guys have shields and body armour.
|Comment #24 by paranj
Sunday, October 23, 2011 @ 10:09:16 AM
Just got it and lemme tell you, I was a big noob when it came to combat in AA though somehow, I have been doing pretty good in this game. Yes, with the critical hits upgrade you basically have to do only 30x combo to get till 50. (IIRC, with critical hits, you have to carry it till 5x and if you continue to time it right, you get +2x for every single hit.)
|Comment #25 by stone5against1
Sunday, October 23, 2011 @ 11:34:51 AM
I didn't even have to try for this one.. Got it in the first fight against Clayface when you get the sword.. hit like 70+ times, just mashing the X button
There's lots of areas with a lot of easy unarmed enemies, should be easy enough to get if you don't bother with finishing blows, and just concentrate on hitting and countering
|Comment #26 by asylumspadez
Sunday, October 23, 2011 @ 05:49:44 PM
Actually isnt that hard, I have gotten to 35-45 numerous times. I havent even tried getting it, I have been far too focused on the 400 riddler challenges.
|Comment #27 by Weirdy Beardie
Monday, October 24, 2011 @ 05:17:22 AM
This popped for me during the Mad Hatter side mission - infinite unarmed bad guys, if you've got the freeflow focus upgrades this should be do-able.
|Comment #28 by asylumspadez
Friday, October 28, 2011 @ 07:23:08 PM
Pretty easy, Did it during the combat challenges. The highest I got was to 63. A good tip is to double tap the A button to evade people, this helps you avoid enemies and keep your combo going
|Comment #29 by OptimumJay
Saturday, October 29, 2011 @ 03:28:06 AM
If anyone is really struggling you could get it easily with the
Solomon Grundy exploit,
|Comment #30 by Knaussenheimer
Saturday, October 29, 2011 @ 11:06:18 PM
This achievement is gay I got a 49 combo no lie on a challenge map and then I beat it before I could get 50. Bull$#*!
|Comment #31 by IN5PE
Sunday, October 30, 2011 @ 03:03:10 PM
I got this in Mad Hatters side mission. Just get the freeflow going and be ready tyto counter when needed
|Comment #32 by Bhova88
Monday, October 31, 2011 @ 07:38:42 AM
Pretty simple, with free flow focus you should be able to achieve combos in excess of 50 pretty easily. If having your having trouble, two things I can recommend.
1. Remember 1 button push equals one move, and try to establish a rhythm. If you aren't good with the automatic takedowns/weapon breaking or dodging pick a challenge level with no weapons. If you go in button mashing, your combo will fail.
2. One of the extreme challenges has two titan henchmen on the third stage (it's the one that's in the same location you fought Joker. Do the titan takedown (B,B,B) and ride the henchman around hitting people, should get to 50 pretty quickly.
|Comment #33 by calzonesays
Saturday, November 05, 2011 @ 03:12:27 AM
I found a glitch on accident for this if any of you need some help on this. I will try to explain this the best I can.
You know in the Steel Mill in the Assembly Line room where you solve the Riddle about the two caged brothers? Well that is where you need to be. You throw a Freeze Blast and Freeze Mine right onto the fence where the brothers are sitting at. It should blow up and cause them to stand up. Once one of the brothers stands up you can spam combos on it through the fence until you get to 50. This is how I did it stumbled upon this on accident LOL.
|Comment #34 by uppyb0t
Sunday, November 06, 2011 @ 12:48:22 PM
I tried your method and it worked, but there is a definite trick to it and you can also risk losing the brothers forever if you're not careful.
Luckily I had Story and Story Plus completed before I tried this. I went back to the Steel Mill on Story and found the brothers and tried the technique. He's right, you just spam ice grenades and freeze blasts, then you can start walloping the brothers.
Batman would do a large combo getting me up to the mid 20's and would keep finishing with a giant kick. After the kick I could no longer hit the brothers. Both become untouchable and I left the area to try to reload them. When I did this and returned, the brothers were gone permanently. I tried quiting and reloading, going to dashboard, and reloading, but they booked it.
I retried on
|Comment #35 by uppyb0t
Sunday, November 06, 2011 @ 12:49:42 PM
I retried on Story Plus and found that it autosaves once you're coming up to the area, which is also useful if it fails on you. I tried again and found that you need to punch the right one from the left so it will push him into the rightside wall. Then it traps him there and Batman will punch up a storm. I got him to 49 and Batman slowed up, I thought I had lost it for sure, but then he finished it off with a slowmow kick and ended the combo at 50.
Ding ding.
If you miss the combo, instantly quit and reload your Story. It will start you within the Steel Mill extremely close to where they are and you can try again. If you leave the area and it autosaves, you've lost them forever.
|Comment #36 by colwell1982
Monday, November 07, 2011 @ 01:53:43 PM
I found this achievement rather easy as my 2 highest combos are 94 and 103.
|Comment #37 by MM2313
Monday, November 07, 2011 @ 05:19:48 PM
This was a really easy achievement to earn. I earned this one while going after the Ghost Train achievement on my very first playthrough, which was now as of this writing. I just stayed focused and kept on hitting guys, one after the next, and quickly moved around the room as fast as I could. Once I reached fifty hits, the achievement forever became mine!
|Comment #38 by BilobateGenie8
Tuesday, November 08, 2011 @ 02:19:21 AM
It should have been more than 5G!
|Comment #39 by Knaussenheimer
Saturday, November 12, 2011 @ 11:33:53 PM
I finally got this after many many tries and I did it as nightwing on the iceberg lounge VIP challenge WITHOUT USING CRITICAL STRIKES!
|Comment #40 by RathSparda
Monday, November 28, 2011 @ 09:38:21 AM
i found this achievement fairly easy. just go to the iceberg lounge get to the 4th round
and jump over everyone and punch easy as that
|Comment #41 by eggflip66
Thursday, December 01, 2011 @ 07:28:25 PM
105 hit combo
|Comment #42 by Whammyaniac
Saturday, December 03, 2011 @ 07:41:51 AM
I got this in the courthouse after I finished the game. There's a whole bunch of unarmed goons (GOONS! :D) in an open space. Do what the video shows: get in a hit (2 if you're feeling lucky), and then immediately evade. Repeat until you get to 50. You don't even really need to counter (although I did), since evade negates the need.
Leave the brothers alone, they ain't hurting anyone anymore! =P
I think this achievement should've been worth 20G.
|Comment #43 by ohthecommotion
Monday, December 12, 2011 @ 09:28:45 AM
I feel like the 100% achievement will be easier than this one. I am terrible timing my attacks and stuff, I just mash X :(
|Comment #44 by Popcorn On Fire5
Monday, December 12, 2011 @ 09:29:49 PM
#33 thank you soooooo much
|Comment #45 by kabel1987
Monday, December 19, 2011 @ 02:45:35 AM
You can make it a lot more difficult by just using Meele attacks(thats swipe and beatdown only), which I did and I am really proud of myself...
|Comment #46 by WildWhiteNoise
Tuesday, December 20, 2011 @ 11:17:13 AM
5G only for this achievement? It should be at least 50.
|Comment #47 by cjdavies
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 @ 02:50:24 PM
The most I have had so far:
Batman - 13
Catwoman - 38
I know who I'm using to get this.
|Comment #48 by pillowpxnts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011 @ 11:24:39 AM
This cheevo is easy. Playing as Batman, select ranked challenge 2 - 'Survival of the Fittest.' Get to round 4, and use the evade technique (A,A) and do one punch ONLY. Only one. Patience is key. Evade, punch, repeat. Continue until you hit 50.
|Comment #49 by Dave Winchester
Sunday, January 01, 2012 @ 03:35:59 PM
Also you can use the modifiers so that way shield guys wont bash your face in and cattle prod dudes wont break your chain whe you attack.
|Comment #50 by toxic1sausage
Tuesday, January 03, 2012 @ 04:38:44 AM
I didnt try to get this achievment but ended up getting it with Robin on Rooftop rumble.
|Comment #51 by Sharelle216
Monday, January 09, 2012 @ 09:16:18 AM
Is there more than one way to get it other than the Mad Hatter level?
|Comment #52 by L Invictus
Sunday, January 22, 2012 @ 12:06:41 AM
I popped the game in and got it today. It was my first achievement, and one that I was pretty happy about. I got it with Night Wing on the Wayne Manor Challenge Map - which I think is a pretty good character and place to rack up this achievement, as long as you put as much focus on avoiding getting hit, as you do landing them, if not more.
|Comment #53 by Mr Blowin Loadz
Sunday, February 05, 2012 @ 01:54:48 AM
I was able to do this very easily with Catwoman, at Hugo Strange's vault
|Comment #54 by Wroth Shaman
Thursday, April 12, 2012 @ 12:39:25 PM
Critical Strike+Freeflow+Comabt Challenge=146 hit combo
|Comment #55 by keyserheel1
Friday, August 03, 2012 @ 12:19:10 PM
catwomans much easier to use....did it on a challenge with a 54 combo...first time ever over a 33...
FINALLY figured out what I was doing wrong...now the combos are coming real easily...
|Comment #56 by oobawlzmahonyoo
Tuesday, October 30, 2012 @ 02:35:33 PM
@3 dude it wasnt that hard
|Comment #57 by oobawlzmahonyoo
Saturday, November 03, 2012 @ 08:33:19 AM
do it on the second combat challange and use catwoman, she's very swift
|Comment #58 by StcGk2008
Tuesday, November 27, 2012 @ 10:44:03 PM
If you haven't gotten this yet, I suggest Harley Quinn's revenge at the end when you fight the room full of robots. The robots are slow and all said and done my combo was 85x. Just be sure to watch out for her sniper (red beam).
|Comment #59 by NannerLoaf
Saturday, April 27, 2013 @ 08:21:20 PM
|Comment #60 by faxanadonts
Thursday, October 31, 2013 @ 12:59:57 PM
I found getting to 50 was a lot easier if I always used evade (double tap A) inbetween attacks (X) instead of trying to use counter.
Using counter there was too much chance that I would try and use it when there ending up being too many enemies around me.
|Comment #61 by Mystery616
Friday, March 21, 2014 @ 06:45:17 PM
I agree with #58. I stink at combos, but the robot fight in the DLC is real easy to get this if you pay attention.
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A Partner at Butler since 2001, Fay E. Ryan devotes her Tampa practice to coverage defense and extra-contractual matters. She also specializes in third-party coverage and casualty defense. Within these practice areas, her numerous claims deal with products liability, construction defect, auto accidents, employer's liability, slip-and-falls, defamation, professional liability, and more. She has tried over fifty jury trials and approximately thirty non-jury trials .
Fay graduated cum laude from Boston College in 1989 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1992, she received her Doctor of Jurisprudence, cum laude, from the University of Florida College of Law. During law school, Fay earned the American Jurisprudence Award in Contracts, Estates and Trusts, English Legal History, and Legal Drafting. She is also a member of the Order of the Coif, an honor society for law school graduates who were in the top ten percent of their graduating class.
Since becoming a lawyer, Fay has contributed to the Defense Research Institute's multi-state compendium (Florida chapter). She has also been published in Mealey's Litigation Report: Bad Faith, and DRI's For The Defense magazine.
This article examines the third party beneficiary doctrine in conjunction with the approaches courts follow with regard to the collection of an excess judgment from a liability insurer.
This is one of a series of articles originally published in Mealey's Litigation Report: Insurance Bad Faith, Vol. 24, #15 (December 9, 2010). © 2010
[Editor's Note: Fay E. Ryan is a partner the Tampa office of Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig LLP, which also has offices in Chicago, Charlotte, Mobile, Tallahassee and Miami. She is an experienced trial attorney in the firm's Extra-Contractual, Third-Party Coverage, and Liability Departments. Kimberly N. Gorak is a senior associate in the Tampa office of Butler , also practicing in the firm's Extra-Contractual, Third-Party Coverage, and Liability Departments. Any commentary or opinions do not reflect the opinions of Butler or Mealey's. Copyright © 2010 by Fay E. Ryan and Kimberly N. Gorak. Responses are welcome .]
This is one of a series of articles originally published in Mealey's Litigation Report: Insurance Bad Faith, Vol. 23, #18 (January 28, 2010). © 2010
Two recent state court decisions jeopardize the right of insurers to consult legal counsel when considering whether to pay or deny the claim of a policyholder. The Arizona and Ohio state supreme courts have issued opinions eroding, even abrogating, the attorney client and work product privileges. In one of these decisions, Boone v. Vanliner, 744 N.E.2d 154 (Ohio 2001), the insurer has petitioned the United States Supreme Court to issue the writ of certiorari, hear the case and reverse the Ohio Supreme Court. The undersigned urges the United States Supreme Court to take the Vanliner case for the reasons stated below.
One of the most common questions I get from out-of-state insurers is whether they are required to honor a claimant's request for disclosure of insurance information under Florida Statute 627.4137. If the applicable policy was not delivered in Florida or issued for delivery in Florida, the short answer is "No." Nonetheless, sometimes an insurer can best protect both its insured and itself by voluntarily providing at least some of the information outlined in the statute.
Protecting the Insured from Exposure in the Multiple Claimant Context
Premises Liability


text:
8 Goals for Quality Care
The Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes Campaign lists eight goals for nursing home improvement, four each on clinical and procedural measures. Participation is voluntary and facilities that enroll in the program must identify at least three goals for improvement.
Clinical goals include:
Goal 1: Reducing pressure ulcers. Sometimes called "bed sores," these preventable examples of skin breakdown can deepen into deadly wounds. In 2006, 13% of nursing home residents had pressure sores. The campaign aims to lower this to 10% by September 2008, preventing 50,000 additional residents from developing this condition.
Goal 2: Reducing the daily use of physical restraints. Strapping residents into chairs or beds was once regarded as necessary for resident safety, but research has proven that doing so increases the likelihood of injury and other serious problems. On average, 6.5% of facility residents were bound by restraints in 2006. The campaign's goal is to reduce this to below 5%, affecting at least 30,000 residents.
Goals 3 and 4: Improving the management of pain. At the start of the campaign, the national average for lack of pain management of long-stay nursing home residents was 5%. The campaign seeks to lower that rate to 4% in 2008. In short-stay hospitals, the national average was 22%. Facilities that volunteer will help reduce tìrat rate to 15% overall by September 2008.
Organizational goals are:
Goal 5: Setting individualized targets for clinical quality improvement. Nursing homes that regularly set quality improvement targets are more likely to improve the quality of their care. …


text:
Mizzou Men's Basketball started its 2015-16 regular season with a win, as the Tigers defeated Wofford, 83-74, Friday night at Mizzou... more
University of Missouri Head Football Coach Gary Pinkel will resign his position following the conclusion of the 2015 season... more
Four volleyball players from Washington High School have been selected to the GAC Central All Conference Team.
Brackets are set for the upcoming Montgomery County Basketball Tournaments...
The New York Rangers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period as they topped the Blues, 6-3, at Madison Square Garden. Vladimir Tarasenko scored his eighth goal of the year for St.
The Cardinals are adding a pair of minor-league free agents to their system.
Rams cornerback Lamarcus Joyner is taking a hit to the wallet after a hit that knocked Vikings quarterback Teddy Bridgewater out of last Sunday's game.
The 2015-16 college basketball season tips off tonight around the country. Saint Louis has a few more days before its first game. The Billikens begin Sunday at home against... more
Missouri is on the gridiron tomorrow facing BYU in a neutral-site game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.
The bracket is set for the 63rd Annual St. Francis Borgia Thanksgiving Tournament. It will run November 23rd through 28th at Ray DeGreef Memorial Gymnasium.
The KLPW Radio Athlete of the Week is Sophomore Lauren Gerlemann from New Haven High School.
Back in their days, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft were known for trust-busting. In an era of price-fixing, crony capitalism and corruption their actions helped to create more opportunities in the marketplace by creating competition.
Our nation's founders were well versed in the lessons of the history that preceded them. They knew of power's natural tendency to escalate into greater power.
So they included the Bill of Rights, based on the notion of individual self-determination.


text: If you didn't try this already, uninstall the adapter software you installed. Restart and plug the usb adapter in and let Windows find and install whatever drivers, etc. came with the operating system. Check your router settings to make sure you're not blocked by any filters like MAC address filtering. You can find IP address, MAC, etc. numbers in Windows by typing "network connections" in the search box, right click on the connection then "properties" then "details". Do this while you have it wired so you're sure you have a connection. Also, try disabling any filters to allow any device access, disable your security, and enable SSID broadcast and see if you can connect. Don't leave your wireless in this condition longer than necessary! If one of them is the issue you know what to work on.


text:
• There has been one previous population pharmacokinetic analysis of total melphalan given as a short infusion in 84 adults (mixed diagnoses) and creatinine clearance and body size were found to be important determinants of total melphalan clearance. Dose and exposure to total melphalan were found to correlate with the development of mucositis.
• This is the largest population pharmacokinetic study on melphalan conducted to date. It is the first conducted in a uniform patient population (patients with multiple myeloma) and the first in which both total and unbound melphalan pharmacokinetics are examined. Factors found to be important determinants of total and unbound plasma clearance of melphalan were creatinine clearance, fat free mass and haematocrit. Haematocrit has not previously been identified as an influential covariate in any previous study. The importance of total and unbound melphalan exposure on transplant outcome was demonstrated by preliminary pharmacodynamic results showing significant associations with melphalan-related toxicity. A preliminary analysis of the association with disease response showed promising trends, but will be examined in more detail with longer follow-up of the whole cohort.
AIMS To i) investigate the pharmacokinetics of total and unbound plasma melphalan using a population approach, ii) identify clinical factors that affect melphalan disposition and iii) evaluate the role of melphalan exposure in melphalan-related toxicity and disease response.
METHODS Population pharmacokinetic modelling (using NONMEM) was performed with total and unbound concentration–time data from 100 patients (36–73 years) who had received a median 192 mg m−2 melphalan dose. Model derived estimates of total and unbound melphalan exposure (AUC) in patients with serious melphalan toxicity and those who had a good disease response (≥90% decrease in paraprotein concentrations) were compared using the Mann-Whitney test.
RESULTS A two compartment model generated population mean estimates for total and unbound melphalan clearance (CL) of 27.8 and 128 l h−1, respectively. Estimated creatinine clearance, fat free mass and haematocrit were important determinants of total and unbound CL, reducing the inter-individual variability in total CL from 34% to 27% and in unbound CL from 42% to 30%. Total AUC (range 4.9–24.4 mg l−1 h) and unbound AUC (range 1.0–6.5 mg l−1 h) were significantly higher in patients who had oral mucositis (≥grade 3) and long hospital admissions (P < 0.01). Patients who responded well had significantly higher unbound AUC (median 3.2 vs. 2.8 mg l−1 h, P < 0.05) when assessed from diagnosis to post-melphalan and higher total AUC (median 21.3 vs. 13.4 mg l−1 h, P= 0.06), when assessed from pre- to post-melphalan.
CONCLUSIONS Creatinine clearance, fat free mass and haematocrit influence total and unbound melphalan plasma clearance. Melphalan exposure is related to melphalan toxicity while the association with efficacy shows promising trends that will be studied further.


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The university is reporting that it brings together 120 scientists and engineers from around the world, with Imperial College London leading the UK collaboration.
Alongside two other experiments, LZ was recently selected by the US Department of Energy's Office of High Energy Physics (DOE) and the National Science Foundation's Physics Division (NSF) to become a formal project later this year. The DOE and NSF believe the design and unprecedented sensitivity of the LZ experiment will give the most impressive results. LZ will be 30 times larger than its predecessor, the Large Underground Xenon (LUX), which is the current most sensitive dark matter detector, and will have over 100 times better reach to find the elusive dark matter particles.
"It's really exciting to get the go ahead from the US government, said Dr Henrique Araujo from Imperial's Department of Physics. "Now we can begin to put theory into practice and construct an experiment that could finally settle the dark matter debate once and for all."
Read more on the Imperial website »