Just caught this SFGate report on a recent study done in Madrid and Barcelona that shows trace amounts of various drugs in the cities’ air. The amounts even go up on weekends.

The Superior Council of Scientific Investigations, a government scientific institute, said on its Web site Thursday that in addition to cocaine, they found trace amounts of amphetamines, opiates, cannabinoids and lysergic acid _a relative of LSD — in two air-quality control stations, one in each city.

And I love that it’s the Superior Council of Scientific Investigations. They stepped in after the Inferior Council failed to locate anything. AGAIN.

Anyway, don’t buy that ticket just yet; the amounts are not nearly enough to get anyone high — and it’s noted that the measurements were done in the parts of the cities where drug consumption was more likely.  But mostly because the reason is we have plenty of drugs here in the good old US of A — and it could be anywhere, like this 5,408 pounds of weed found in a school bus!

Childlike sense of wonder = intact.

Oh, and because we care, if you are likely to get caught with drugs, or defrauding people out of their retirement or something, and you are deathly afraid of what will happen to you in “rape-you-in-the-ass prison”, you could do worse than to talk to the brilliantly named Wall Street Prison Consultants. Which is far as I can tell is one guy, Larry Levine, who spent a decade in various prisons and now sells survival seminars to white-collar criminals.

See? The world is your oyster.  And by “the world”, I mean “jail time”. Or maybe “chemical pollution”.

BBC SPORT | Olympics | Fina cracks down on hi-tech suits.

“Fina wishes to recall the main and core principle is that swimming is a sport essentially based on the physical performance of the athlete,” said a statement from swimming’s world governing body.

The first swimsuit to combine stitch-free, ultrasonically welded seams, water-resistant fabric and strategically-placed polyurethane panels (designed by Nasa), the LZR took the swimming world by storm last year.

At the Olympics in Beijing, LZR swimmers, most notably Michael Phelps, won 94% of the golds on offer and broke 23 of the 25 records set in the Cube.

But opponents of the hi-tech suits argue the buoyancy they create amounts to “technological doping”.

Aaaaand we are all cyborgs, no?  The concept of ‘technological doping’ is interesting, problematic, and fascinating.  I guess it’s the recognition that chemicals aren’t the only way an athlete can enhance their performance that grabbed me about this.  It’s a preview of a very real problem that’s only going to continue as we intertwine our bodies with technology more and more intimately.

Centenarian athletes and aged porn stars: the tip of Japan’s demographic iceberg – Times Online.