Phantom Reflections

UCI will back Contador

Link: VeloNews | McQuaid to Contador: I've got your back | The Journal of Competitive Cycling
The ASO is acting like a band of fascists. The good news is that Pat McQuaid president of the UCI is now vowing to back last year's Tour de France winner in a legal fight with the ASO.

UCI chief pat McQuaid on Friday promised to back reigning Tour de France champion Alberto Contador should he decide to take legal action over his exclusion from this year's race.

The tour's organisers, Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), ruled on February 13 that Contador's Astana team would be barred from competing in this year's race as a result of doping scandals over the past two years.

But International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid said the decision is unfair.

"If Contador decides to take legal action in Spain or internationally myself and the UCI will give evidence in his favor and I will be a witness," McQuaid told the daily El Mundo.

Contador has no plans to sue anybody right now. He will focus on other races, but if the UCI is willing to back Contador does that go for Levi too? I can't believe that the ASO has effectively disallowed two podium finishers the chance to come back and compete in the 2008 edition of the Tour. It just furthers everybody's gut feeling that the ASO has been on a quest to attack American cyclists and cycling teams. Contador was on Team Discovery when he won last year and that was the worst thing he could do in the eyes of the ASO. He just should have sat up and let a Frenchman win. Then they'd be happy and he and Astana would have probably been invited back to the Tour.

Is there any doubt now that the smear campaign against Floyd Landis is anything but a farce? The ASO is associated with both L'Equipe and the French lab that was responsible for the testing. I think that when all is cleared up the UCI should definitely back Floyd Landis in a full frontal legal assault on the ASO.

What can you do? First, support Floyd Landis -- he was the first winner of the TDF to be victimized by the ASO. Second, go to LetLeviRide.com and sign the petition to allow Levi, Alberto, and the whole Astana squad to ride the Tour.

Trek XI to honor Roddenberry's Vision

Link: Slice of SciFi News Briefs - Slice of SciFi.
I found this today at Slice of SciFi:

Simon Pegg (”Shuan of the Dead,” “Hot Fuzz”), who stars as the new Montgomery Scott for the J.J. Abrams prequel of “Star Trek,” said in a recent interview that there will definitely be sequels to the new “Star Trek” prequel film. Pegg says this prequel will take the original vision of Gene Roddenberry very seriously.

“It’s not at all ironic. It’s not a jokey take on the original series,” stated Pegg. “It’s a faithful and loving installment in the ongoing mythology of the show.”

That's the type of good news I like to hear.

Hulu Officially Launched

Link: hulu: Watch your favorites. Anytime. For free..
Oh goody! Yet another thing to distract me from the stuff I'm supposed to be doing. Hulu is up and running and it's really awesome. I'm not that sure it will reinvent the way we watch TV, or replace TV, or... well, who knows.

For years futurists have said that the Internet and TV will merge -- they've been saying that since 1997. Eleven years later we get Hulu, Apple TV and a few other incompatible ways of watching television (NBC here, ABC there, Universal sans old MGM over near the ladies unmentionables). Heck, we just finally solidified Blueray as the official HD standard -- so long, betamax.

Really, no one knows what's gonna happen -- not even that exec from the pitch meeting who went on about how many billions of hits your show will get. TV is a mess with rocky schedules and mindless hiatuses. My favorite shows get canceled and I still want to know what happened on DAYBREAK... or how about the other two episodes of DRIVE? Right... I need to go to fox.com/shows/canceledstuff/2007/dev/pub/qt4_def/  Thanks, but I have too much stuff on my DVR already. I'd rather not work for my TV.

Okay, enough... Check out Hulu. The link is above.

Star Trek XI Writing Team to pen Superman

Link: Orci & Kurtzman Tackle Man of Steel - Slice of SciFi
This is some really good news!

Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the scribes behind the mega hit movie “Transformers” and the much anticpated J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” pic will next tackle the mighty superhero for Bryan Singer’s “Superman: Man of Steel.”

This is the duo responsible for STAR TREK XI, and if they have J.J. Abrams' confidence to handle Trek imagine what they can do with the Superman franchise.