The Daily Telegraph reports an interview with Prince Charles, that famous organic farmer, where he continues to lambast genetically modified crops.

His criticisms seem to principally concern the mass commercialisation of farming - I guess his interests in organic community farming in Caithness and the Duchy estate prompt this.  However the interview seems to me to be interpreted by the media as a criticism of the GM industry, despite his comments being vague and really quite ill-informed scientifically. To say GM crops are a "gigantic experiment I think with nature and the whole of humanity which has gone seriously wrong" is really unhelpful, with no evidence presented to support his stance.

 These photographs were taken during the 2005 trip to Normandy for the Duo Normand.  They were taken before and after the race while tandem cycling in the Norman countryside, and during the race as we started in and passing through Marigny (notice the picture where we were going so fast only the edge of my disc wheel is in the photo!).  We also visited Mont St Michel.

{gallery}2005-normandy:::{/gallery} 

Einsturzende Neubauten have released a significant catalogue of music, which has metamorphosed from loud metal bashing to more sophisticated sounds such as Silence is Sexy, from the album of the same title.  I found this video at YouTube.

This was a particularly tough morning on the F1/25 - perhaps the hardest I can recall, though at least the heavy rain we saw on Saturday did not make a reappearance.

 The initial section, roughly southbound to the Sandy RAB, gave me a little taster for what was to come later on: after descending the sliproad to the A1, it was most definitely going to be tough on both southbound legs. Unfortunately the reverse didn't seem to the true, while it's true I was whizzing along with a tailwind after the Sandy RAB (I topped 34mph at times), the benefits of the wind seemed to be absent some of the time.  Presumably this was due to the slightly serpentine nature of the course.  Despite most peoples' opinion, I'm a bit of an optimist, and usually on days like this I reach the turn think that maybe, just maybe, the return leg won't be as hard as I expect.  For today's event, I can safely say the return leg exceeded my direst prognostications.  On some of the more exposed sections, I was battered down below 20mph, and I'm sure I saw 17mph at one point.  (Jason Gurney claimed afterwards to have had to drop to the small ring at one point!).  I was caught by #90 for 3 minutes shortly after the turn, and even he seemed to be struggling into the wind after that.

These photos were taken during our 2005 cycle tour of Uist, Harris and Skye.  Visit the tour description to see the context of these images.

Here are photographs from our 2006 cycling holiday, when we were based at Lochcarron.

Well, I have finally plucked up the courage to present a link to the video press release that the BBSRC issued on youtube:

  [video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQwz2Wv9FU 425x344]

Not, I think, peer-reviewed science this time, but two articles from Nature and Science respectively, both on the subject of sports doping, a subjetc which is of course very topical given the Beijing Olympics, due to start tomorrow, 8th August.  The first is a Commentary article from Donald Barry on the statistical significance of doping tests, focussing on the case of Floy Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory following a positive test for testosterone.  The second article is one of a series of News articles in Science related to the upcoming Olympics, and questions whether performance enhancing drugs really do benefit performance.

The figure on the left is included in the article - it shows delta notation of isotope ratios of 167 samples tested at the LNDD (who tested the 2006 TdF samples, including Landis'), those considered positive are in red, those negative are in green.   I don't think these samples are necessarily derived from the Tour, if any, since a good number are considered positive.

 A warm, sticky evening brought out some great times from the riders who turned out for this visit to the Stoke Hammond bypass course.  Personally speaking, this was yet another occasion when I actually thought I'd go sub 22:30 on this course, but was thwarted by the false flat on the run up to the finish.  Still, I seem to be edging closer to Tony.  Having tried out a pointy aero hat last week, Gilbert paired that move to the modern world with a set of aero bars this week!

Tim Carter's fine ride of 20:39 was particularly notable, beaten only by the tandem.

Here are some photographs taken during our 2008 cycling holiday in the Outer Hebrides, Skye, and the west coast.  To view these images in the context of the narrative, click here.

{gallery}tour2008{/gallery}

New Web Pages

My website is now pretty much reconstructed (though with a paucity of comments on the stories I've restored from the old database!).  Let me know of any broken web links.

Cyclingnew.com reports that Emanuele Sella (Team CSF Group Navigare), who won three stages and the King of the Moutains in the 2008 Giro d'Italia, has tested positive for the latest formulation of EPO, CERA.  CERA is the same stuff that Ricco (second placed in the 2008 Giro overall) tested positive for in the Tour de France.

CERA seems to be the endurance athlete's dope of choice at the moment, presumably due to rumours that it was less easily detected. The Olympics start in two days - I wonder how many athletes, of all disciplines, will be collared.

Am I correct to assume that you've not punctured since May? In which case, is this some sort of record?

The morning was pretty vile - alternating light and heavy rain - it was with something of a heavy heart that I set off in a downpour to the Hemel 10, over by Leighton Buzzard.  I took a somewhat circuitous route (somewhat concerned about picking up a flint in the smaller lanes), and by the time I reached the race HQ it was sunny and warm, albeit with a rising breeze.

Despite the squelching shoes, I felt pretty optimistic. The outward leg had something of a tailwind and is the longer leg of the event.  Overall though there were some slightyl tough sections, it was quick to the turn, and a bit harder back.  I reached a max HR of 197bpm during the return leg! I finished in 22:37, which I think is my fastest on this course for a few years. 

What has happened to my web pages?

Basically, a botched upgrade from a Joomla! release candidate to the latest version!  However, I plan a better website than before!  Hopefully reasonably normal service will be resumed over the coming weeks.

Since remodelling this website in August 2008, I have tested these pages in the following browsers and operating systems:

I don't have access to a Mac, so have not so far evaluated browsers on that platform.

Manipulating the Metazoan Mitochondrial Genome with Targeted Restriction Enzymes

Hong Xu, Steven Z. DeLuca, Patrick H. O'Farrell

Science 25 July 2008:
Vol. 321. no. 5888, pp. 575 - 577
DOI: 10.1126/science.1160226

This week's event came towards the end of a rather hot and humid spell - a strong and gusty wind blew up during the day, but had thankfully abated by the time I left work to ride over to Stony Stratford, where the evnt was being held on the F5u/10 course (actually about 11.4 miles in our configuration.  My new route over is to ride up V10 then across to Watling St on H3 and on to Stony.  This was pretty straightforward, and a good warmup.

For the event itself, I tried to keep the gears modest for the climb up to Nash, and by and large succeeded.  My HR quickly rose to respectable levels, and indeed (probably due to the warm conditions) rose over 190bpm for much of the event.

A week at residential school (seven 12 hour days indoors, with cafeteria food and too much beer) is not the best way to prepare for a 50 mile time trial.  On the morning, we were greeting with warm and humid conditions, with a little light wind (headwind northbound) and a few light showers.

I started late in the field, number 83, and found the first 4 or 5 miles pretty quick.  But then is truggled a bit to keep in a rhythm.  No traffic problems other than tractor overtaking me just before  a descent shortly before my second turn at the Buckden roundabout - this held me up until a sprinted past.  I was cheered on by Carol at the roadside, which always helps.  I finished in 1:58:58, which is I think my best '50' in the last three seasons (but is bizarrely slower than my first 50 miles in the NM&H CA '100' two weks ago, on the same section of road.  I was reasonably happy with this - I kept my HR above 180 for most of the race.  The event was won by Jason Gurney (Team MK) who improved by about 4 minutes to record a 1:46!

Life-history change in disease-ravaged Tasmanian devil populations

Jones et al (2008) PNAS July 22, 2008 vol. 105 no. 29 10023–10027

Full text (requires subscription); Abstract (free access)