British athletes routinely use caffeine to boost their performance, say researchers. A third of track and field athletes and 60% of cyclists reported taking caffeine before competing, a Liverpool John Moores University study found. The drug was removed from the list of banned substances in 2004 but its use is still monitored. The study's authors said it raised concerns that athletes were exploiting caffeine to gain an advantage. In recent years there have been widely publicised fears about increasing doping in sport and Beijing officials are planning on doing 25% more drug tests than were done in Athens.
Study leader Dr Neil Chester said the World Anti-Doping Agency had not been clear about why caffeine had been removed from the list but he understood it was because it was too hard to distinguish between normal social use and abuse of the drug. A total of 480 athletes were questioned for the study, through athletics or cycling clubs and at sporting events. They reported using caffeine in the form of energy drinks, sports supplements, pills and coffee, the International Journal of Sports Medicine reported. Elite athletes were more likely to use caffeine to improve their performance than those who took part in sport recreationally. Boost Dr Chester said caffeine had been shown to be beneficial for endurance events and would also increase the alertness of athletes. He added that the fairly recent introduction of caffeine to energy and sports drinks had increased the opportunity for athletes to consume the drug in high doses. "There's been a lack of communication from WADA and there is a question about whether or not sporting authorities are condoning its use," he said. "Ultimately there is a need to clarify the use of caffeine within the present anti-doping legislation." Mark Stuart, who was a pharmacist for the Sydney Olympics and who has just written an editorial on the topic for BMJ Clinical Effectiveness, said there was an "obvious difference" between the view of the authorities and that of the athletes on the benefits of caffeine. "There still seems to be some scope for athletes to exploit commonly available dietary supplements, such as caffeine, with minimal consequence." Dr Samantha Stear, national nutrition lead at the English Institute of Sport, said there had been a lot of confusion among athletes about caffeine use which had been restricted but then moved to the monitoring list because caffeine was present in so many foods. "Some find it beneficial and some don't, it's very dependent on the individual. "We try and work with the minimal amount that's needed for the athlete." A spokesman for the World Anti-Doping Agency said research suggested that caffeine actually damaged performance when used in significant quantity. In addition, as caffeine was metabolised at different rates by different people, there was a danger that athletes could face sanctions simply for social consumption. | |||
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Caffeine use common in athletes
There is a question about whether or not sporting authorities are condoning its use 
Law prof and cop agree: never ever ever ever ever ever ever talk to the cops about a crime, even if you're innocent
In a brilliant pair of videos, , Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law and Officer George Bruch of the Virginia Beach Police Department present a forceful case for never, ever, ever speaking to the police without your lawyer present. Ever. Never, never, never.
It's a long commitment -- 45 minutes to watch them both -- but boy is it worth it. Might save you 5-10 some day, too.
Why Are There No Cheap Electric Cars?
Written by Hank Green
I see this question in my inbox or in comments several times per week. The asker generally proposes one of several possibilities. These range oil-company assassinations to esoteric problems with the car's transmissions.
Fortunately for everyone, it's neither as exciting as assassination or as mundane as fundamental mechanical flaws. It's a collection of problems, actually, that are slowly being overcome.
And though we can't do it today, five years down the road, the future of electric cars will look a lot brighter.
So here's a collection of problems and their upcomming solutions:
Problem #1: Car manufacturers have put many billions of dollars and almost a hundred years into the development of the internal combustion engine, and they don't want to (or can't even imagine how to) abandon that investment for new technology.
Solution: It only took a global crisis, a quadrupling of gas prices and the majority of consumers shifting to efficient cars to convince them that maybe gasoline wasn't the best idea. Now even the biggest, oldest and stodgiest of the car manufacturers are investigating electric cars.
Problem #2: Batteries do not store power as efficiently as fossil fuels. They are heavy, bulky and provide far less power per unit of weight than gasoline, ethanol or hydrogen.
Solution: The EV1 overcame this by being a truly tiny car, and having a fairly low top speed. But still it could only travel less than 100 miles on a charge. Now cars are being updated with Lithium Ion batteries which can carry far more power per pound (though still not as much as gasoline.)
And range-extended EVs like the Chevy Volt allow the battery to remain small, while the on-board ICE can recharge the batteries when they get low. And, even more fascinating, an ultra-stealth company called EEStor says they have a new ultracapacitor technology that could store far more energy than batteries, and charge in just a few minutes
Problem #3: Filling a gas tank takes five minutes, charging a battery can take as long as 12 hours.
Solution: I'll start with EEStor again, who says that their ultracapacitors can charge in minutes but still power a car for over 300 miles. Pheonix Motorcars has a nanotech based Li-ion battery that can also be charged in a matter of minutes. Unfortunately, both of these technologies require extremely high voltage, so the cars could not be charged quickly at home.
Extra infrastructure in the form of charging stations would be necessary to allow these batteries to charge quickly.
Other solutions to the long-charge-time include Project Better Place's plan to have battery swapping stations (instead of gas stations.) The idea being that PBP owns the batteries, and chargest them at stations. A car-wash-like facility swaps out a freshly charged battery for your used one. This, as well requires a ton of new infrastructure though.
The Chevy Volt, finally, takes a middle road, and basically lets you charge the battery with gasoline when you really need it. So you can charge at home with electricity over long periods, but if you need a boost NOW the gasoline option is always available.
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Without overcoming those obstacles, there would indeed never be a cheap, convenient, mass-market electric car. But the good news is, we're on the verge of overcoming (or, in some cases, have already overcome) the limitations of previous eelectric cars.
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