Soiled Sport's 2011 Trail Series has a new look

Welcome to Soiled Sport 2011 Trail Series - Fat Ass Style

Don't take offence, I am not referring to the fact that your ass looks big in those running shorts, but refers to a no nonsense version of doing races.

Fat Ass events started back in the late 70's when a runner was fed up with rising costs of running a race and the rising costs of holding a race.

There are three basic rules to a Fat Ass event:

1. No fees


2. No awards


3. No whining

And you get what you pay for, no shirts, no aid stations and no sympathy.

As in previous years, the rules I just dream up after a drunken stooper, such as:

• 10 points for completing a Saturday trail run


• 10 points for completing an Ontario Ultra Series race


• 10 points for volunteering for a London Pacer hosted event


• 20 bonus points for finding the hidden immunity idol (more details to follow)


• 10 bonus points for wearing Soiled Sport/Vulture Bait/London Pacer shirts, when instructed via this blog before the trail run


• Extra bonus points for attempting to bribe me with cheesecake, booze and winning lottery tickets

The race schedule will be posted this weekend, but will start with Meadowlilly Trails on April 2nd, 8:00 am sharp.

Sejarah Flash MX macromedia

Awalnya dikembangkan oleh Macromedia, Flash diperkenalkan pada tahun 1996, dan saat ini sedang dikembangkan dan didistribusikan oleh Adobe Systems, sebagai akibat tahun 2005 pembelian perusahaan. Pendahulu ke aplikasi Flash SmartSketch, sebuah aplikasi menggambar untuk komputer pena menjalankan OS PenPoint dikembangkan oleh Jonathan Gay, yang mulai bekerja di atasnya di perguruan tinggi dan memperpanjang ide untuk Silicon Beach Software dan penerusnya.

Ketika PenPoint gagal di pasar , SmartSketch adalah porting ke Microsoft Windows dan Mac OS. Dengan internet menjadi lebih populer, SmartSketch dirilis ulang sebagai FutureSplash, animasi vektor berbasis web dalam persaingan dengan Macromedia Shockwave. Pada tahun 1995, SmartSketch semakin dimodifikasi dengan fitur animasi frame-by frame dan kembali dirilis sebagai FutureSplash Animator pada berbagai platform. Produk ini ditawarkan kepada Adobe dan digunakan oleh Microsoft dalam pekerjaan awal dengan Internet (MSN). Pada tahun 1996, FutureSplash diakuisisi oleh Macromedia dan dirilis sebagai Flash, kontrak "Masa Depan" dan "Splash".

yes please.

*images courtesy of pretty stuff, the decorista

Safflower Oil Study

A few people have sent me a new study claiming to demonstrate that half a tablespoon of safflower oil a day improves insulin sensitivity, increases HDL and decreases inflammation in diabetics (1). Let me explain why this study does not show what it claims.

It all comes down to a little thing called a control group, which is the basis for comparison that you use to determine if your intervention had an effect. This study didn't have one for the safflower group. What it had was two intervention groups, one given 6.4g conjugated linoleic acid (CLA; 50% c9t11 and 50% t10c12-CLA) per day, and one given 8g safflower oil. I have to guess that this study was originally designed to test the effects of the CLA, with the safflower oil group as the control group, and that the interpretation of the data changed after the results came in. Otherwise, I don't understand why they would conduct a study like this without a control group.

Anyway, they found that the safflower oil group did better than the CLA group over 16 weeks, showing a higher insulin sensitivity, higher HDL, lower HbA1c (a marker of average blood glucose levels) and lower CRP (a marker of inflammation). But they also found that the safflower group improved slightly compared to baseline, therefore they decided to attribute the difference to a beneficial effect of safflower oil. The problem is that without a control (placebo) group for comparison, there's no way to know if the improvement would have occurred regardless of treatment, due to the season changing, more regular check-ups at the doctor's office due to participating in a study, or countless other unforeseen factors. A control group is essential for the accurate interpretation of results, which is why drug studies always have placebo groups.

What we can say is that the safflower oil group fared better than the CLA group, because there was a difference between the two. However, what I think really happened is that the CLA supplement was harmful and the small dose of safflower oil had no effect. Why? Because the t10c12 isomer of CLA, which was half their pill, has already been shown by previous well-controlled studies to reduce insulin sensitivity, decrease HDL and increase inflammatory markers at a similar dose and for a similar duration (2, 3). The safflower oil group only looked good by comparison. We can add this study to the "research bloopers" file.

It's worth noting that naturally occurring CLA mixtures, similar to those found in pastured dairy and ruminant fat, have not been shown to cause metabolic problems such as those caused by isolated t10c12 CLA.

Agent's Smith Registry

I have just discovered the joy that is comixed.com. This one is probably my favorite so far:

Image Description*: Panel 1: Neo says, "So you just keep duplicating
your program over and over? Aren't you afraid of registry errors?"
Panel 2: Agent Smith says, "Mr. Anderson...Do you honestly think that I would allow
there to be any errors in my system's regist.."
Panel 3: Hugo Weaving in drag with an outlandish orange and yellow costume.
Panel 4: Agent Smith (I think?) with white light coming out of his eyes.

While we're talking about The Matrix, I just stumbled across this video of a recreation of a scene from the film in Lego. I somehow missed it the first time around when it came out in 2009, so in case you did too here it is:

You can also watch the side-by-side with the original film. It's amazing. 

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* From now on I'm going to try to make my captions more accessible to readers who are blind and/or visually impaired. Please call me on it if I forget!