"Training" Plot

This blog is on my current reading list:

http://thisisindexed.com/

and it inspired me to take one of her insightful plots of a week or so ago and slide it into a bike/triathlon racing context:



The concept of the "indexed" blog is brilliant...really helpful for developing conceptual/relational thinking.

The LANCE effect or the DOPING effect?

or both of them combined?

Velonews ran a story about how great things were going for the media players and their website this year during "tour time":

velonews article

BTW, I was pointed to this article after reading the "shut up and drink the kool-aid" blog a few days ago...

kool-aid blog post

Here's a stat from my blog that is similar to the ones quoted in the blog above:

increase in unique views during the tour compared to similar period during last month(which was June - my best blog views month ever):

218%

I can't really make any other comparisons for my blog, though, since my webstats skillz aren't as good as they should be, I reckon (or my host provider's stats package isn't servicing me to the same level as other blog providers appear to be).

However, being the passionately curious person I am, I tried to see if I couldn't get some independent confirmation on just how rosy things were for the big dawgs of the online cycling media (like velonews.com, cyclingnews.com, pezcyclingnews.com - any others out there???) by typing a few words in over at alexa.com - and wound up being able to generate this plot for the past five years (you'll have to click on the link):

image link at alexa.com

I reckon Alexa's info more closely matches what BTR's overall web statistics reflects year over year in terms of expected growth - in other words, my BTR data suggests (BTR's overall positive growth this year during the tour wasn't as big as last year's growth around "tour time") that velonews is possibly doing a bit of cherry picking of their website data - otherwise known as "spin".

BTR is still growing at a pretty consistent rate, but I reckon the LANCE/Doping effect is real (i.e, LANCE's absence and the increased awareness around cycling and doping is having a negative impact on the cycling industry in general on the web) - at least that's what the data I have access to supports.

The industry spin might be different though.

What are everyone else's thoughts on this one?

Michael Shermer Nuggets

This post has absolutely nothing to do with bikes (but there is a bike frame in a couple of the videos below!), and will probably get me into lots of trouble with some folks, but oh well...

So, I read this book a couple years ago:



and when the skeptic society was running a special on signed copies, I ordered a copy:



I dig Michael Shermer and the way he thinks. I've read a few of his books over the years, and I was fortunate enough to see him debate Kent Hovind a few years back at UC Irvine.

Here's a clip I dug up after receiving my latest skeptic email newsletter that pretty much shows what he's all about:



and the second part:




Good stuff to keep in mind when evaluating ideas/products or doing science, I reckon. Ah, crap, I reckon we all should just shut up and drink the Kool-aid, though, eh?

That's a great blog, that kool-aid one - navigate to the home page after reading that link I just couldn't help but posting... hee hee... good stuff over there!