Apparently French prisoners are going to be participating in a bike tour of France to develop skills that will help them on the outside. Since it's probably the closest I'd ever get to riding in the real Tour, I may have to go to France, commit a crime and hope I get picked for the team.
I foresee no issues with this event. The prisoners will be on their best behaviour and will not try to ride away from the guards on bikes.
I think it is going to take them forever to make their way around France--the distance seems rather ambitious. I highly doubt the guards will get them on regimented doping programs, so be prepared for passed out prisoners scattered over the highways of France.
26.5.09
21.5.09
Giro D'Italia
Pretty interesting day in the Giro today. It was a crazy 60km TT with tons of turns and lots of elevation change. I think everyone I saw had clip-ons on some sort of road/TT hybrid. Menchov ended up winning the stage, which was quite surprising. His form looked crazy good and I don't think he had anything left when he got to the line. He left absolutely everything on the course.
Di Luca lost a bunch of time and is now out of the jersey in 2nd. He kinda bugs me, although I'm not really sure why. Levi had a good ride and is in 3rd.
The top 3 are separated by 40 seconds and then the next gap is 2 minutes. This should set up nicely for some attacks and breaks in the remaining mountain stages.
The plot thickens....
Di Luca lost a bunch of time and is now out of the jersey in 2nd. He kinda bugs me, although I'm not really sure why. Levi had a good ride and is in 3rd.
The top 3 are separated by 40 seconds and then the next gap is 2 minutes. This should set up nicely for some attacks and breaks in the remaining mountain stages.
The plot thickens....
20.5.09
Cycling And Economic Crises
Looks like the problems affecting the Kazakh sponsored Astana cycling team have (sort of) made their way onto Bloomberg. No wonder the team hasn't been paid in a while: companies, some of which are partly owned by the government, are defaulting on their bond (principal and interest) payments.
The team is riding in the Giro D'Italia with the sponsor's logos faded out. The only ones that can be seen properly are the ones that have paid in full: Nike, Trek and maybe another one.
I hope they get some financing in place by the time the Tour De France rolls around. The team is looking decent now, and will be much fitter and motivated in July.
The team is riding in the Giro D'Italia with the sponsor's logos faded out. The only ones that can be seen properly are the ones that have paid in full: Nike, Trek and maybe another one.
I hope they get some financing in place by the time the Tour De France rolls around. The team is looking decent now, and will be much fitter and motivated in July.
12.5.09
Ouch, That Hurt My Ego
I entered my first road race on the weekend and boy was it humbling. I had been training quite a bit over the winter, so I figured I'd be in decent shape.
But that was not the case.
Oh oh oh, that was not case.
I fell off the back of the group about 5 minutes after the race started and I could not get back on. I don't think I quite redlined it, but I probably should have. It would have been worth it to use up a couple match sticks to get back and recover a bit.
So me and a guy from another team took turn dragging each other around the course. It was a great introduction to racing.
I learned that it is so important to always be near the front, that way when the group surges around a corner you won't fall off.
Point taken: for the next race stay near the front at all costs.
But that was not the case.
Oh oh oh, that was not case.
I fell off the back of the group about 5 minutes after the race started and I could not get back on. I don't think I quite redlined it, but I probably should have. It would have been worth it to use up a couple match sticks to get back and recover a bit.
So me and a guy from another team took turn dragging each other around the course. It was a great introduction to racing.
I learned that it is so important to always be near the front, that way when the group surges around a corner you won't fall off.
Point taken: for the next race stay near the front at all costs.
7.5.09
Go Figure
On the eve of the Giro D'Italia, it looks as though Astana's sponsorship is about to fall through. A few days ago news broke that the Kazakh sponsors hadn't paid the team and weren't returning phone calls. No one saw this coming? Borat references aside, I doubt Kazakhstan has the best institutional framework to support following up with people/corporations who don't honour their contracts.
Now the rumour mill is churning out the possibility that Lance may secure backing from the US and possibly from himself. Isn't this the same guy who said that the Discovery Team ended because it was too hard to get new dollars into the sport because of the all doping? He thinks it's going to be easier now, given the current economic climate and the ongoing blood doping and regular doping investigations?
I'm not as confident. I think that the riders will pay their own way during the Giro and might even dawn the Mellow Johnny jerseys worn by Lance, Levi and Chris at the Tour of the Gila.
Now the rumour mill is churning out the possibility that Lance may secure backing from the US and possibly from himself. Isn't this the same guy who said that the Discovery Team ended because it was too hard to get new dollars into the sport because of the all doping? He thinks it's going to be easier now, given the current economic climate and the ongoing blood doping and regular doping investigations?
I'm not as confident. I think that the riders will pay their own way during the Giro and might even dawn the Mellow Johnny jerseys worn by Lance, Levi and Chris at the Tour of the Gila.
6.5.09
The Fed Is Propping Up The Economy
Very good read on ZeroHedge about how the Federal Reserve is basically responsible for the 'recovery' we've seen so far. If they were to pull out, everything would come crumbling down...
Second Derivative
Another sign that this thing is almost over: the rate of job loses has begun to decrease. In calculus speak, the second derivative is positive. The only think better than having a positive second derivative when the first derivative is negative, is having second derivative equal to zero. At this rate, it's only a matter of time...
3.5.09
Formula 1
I follow F1 reasonably closely. It combines a number of my favorite things: constrained optimization, going fast, drama and technology.
In order to make the racing more exciting, the governing body of F1 (the FIA) changes some of the rules every year. This year they got rid of grooved tires and returned to slicks, they've allowed team to use the KERS system and they've changed what's allowed in terms of the front and rear wing and all the other knicks and knacks attached to the car.
A lot of these rule changes were made so that over taking would increase. That's been the biggest knock against F1 in the past few years: once the grid is set in qualifying, the running order basically stays the same and the winner comes from the top 2 rows.
It is funny because no matter what the FIA does, the teams almost always approach the track record from previous years. The engineers are just too smart. They're given a new set of constraints every year and within a few months they've figured out how to make the car perform at a level equal to or greater than last year.
The most interesting change this year is the KERS system. It stands for kinetic-energy-something-something. Basically, the car goes around the track and kinetic energy builds up in battery and then the driver hits a button for an extra 60 hp. The downside is that the system weighs about 25kg or 30kg. So, if you're a heavier you will most likely opt to not use it. It has made overtaking a little more common.
As much as I like F1 I find the arbitrary rule changes a little ridiculous. I think they should a minimal set of rules and just let the teams go nuts. But with large spending piles of money no longer in vogue the FIA is bowing to the pressure and taking various measures to bring spending in. In fact, next year they're talking about capping spending in the 30M or 40M Euro area (I think during the Schumacher era, Ferrari was spending about 250M). Shouldn't it be "ye with the most money wins?"
In order to make the racing more exciting, the governing body of F1 (the FIA) changes some of the rules every year. This year they got rid of grooved tires and returned to slicks, they've allowed team to use the KERS system and they've changed what's allowed in terms of the front and rear wing and all the other knicks and knacks attached to the car.
A lot of these rule changes were made so that over taking would increase. That's been the biggest knock against F1 in the past few years: once the grid is set in qualifying, the running order basically stays the same and the winner comes from the top 2 rows.
It is funny because no matter what the FIA does, the teams almost always approach the track record from previous years. The engineers are just too smart. They're given a new set of constraints every year and within a few months they've figured out how to make the car perform at a level equal to or greater than last year.
The most interesting change this year is the KERS system. It stands for kinetic-energy-something-something. Basically, the car goes around the track and kinetic energy builds up in battery and then the driver hits a button for an extra 60 hp. The downside is that the system weighs about 25kg or 30kg. So, if you're a heavier you will most likely opt to not use it. It has made overtaking a little more common.
As much as I like F1 I find the arbitrary rule changes a little ridiculous. I think they should a minimal set of rules and just let the teams go nuts. But with large spending piles of money no longer in vogue the FIA is bowing to the pressure and taking various measures to bring spending in. In fact, next year they're talking about capping spending in the 30M or 40M Euro area (I think during the Schumacher era, Ferrari was spending about 250M). Shouldn't it be "ye with the most money wins?"
1.5.09
H1N1
Bloomberg is tracking the swine flu. The index follows the number of cases reported by the WHO.
I wonder if some quant will figure out a way to trade different flu viruses. There could be spread markets where you short the H2N5 flu and go long the H1N1 flu. I wonder if flus are mean reverting, have jumps, follow geometric Brownian motion, obey a power law or increase exponentially. I guess it depends on how you define the index.
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