I'm tired of this.  Justin Gatlin tested positive on his piss test.  So much for all his achievements.

I should've stopped caring when Kenteris skipped the Olympics.  That guy was my hero when he won gold for Greece in 2000.

Some folks say that there should be criminal sanctions against athletes for fraud.  I say that it would be enough to disqualify ( Read more... )

So a screenname pops up on my "Friends" list from my Yahoo! Messenger buddy list on Trillian.  It's a friend from Germany with whom I haven't spoken to for two years.  I had met chatted with him five or six years ago and talked to him rarely after that first year.  He's about my age, and I think I met him in one of those now-defunct Yahoo! ( Read more... )

This was a steal.


( Read more... )

Funny, I was just asked if I was competing in the Central American Games held here in Cartagena.  I don't know how to take that.

Many of these athletes wouldn't cut it in the olympics, after all.

The definition of a tough situation is one where rational people can agree on broad guiding principles in analyzing a problem and yet propose very different solutions.  Most people believe that 1) Israel has a right to exist/defend itself, 2) Lebanese democracy is a good thing, 3) terrorism is bad, 4) kidnapping soldiers is bad too, and 5) peace is ( Read more... )

I went to Santa Marta for a day.  That is a little over 100 miles from Cartagena where I normally work.  Here's a photo:


( Read more... )

I just read an interesting article written by Neal Kaytan, the lawyer who won the Hamdan case, wherein he argues that military courts-martial are the best way to try detainees at Guantánamo ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Obstetric fistula is the nastiest, saddest condition I've heard of yet.  It's bewildering how many problems can be found, and how many organizations are willing to crop up to deal with them.