Why isn’t there a cap on testosterone levels in male athletes so they don’t have an unfair advantage?

Because men’s sport isn’t a restricted category, so no restrictions are needed (ignoring doping etc.) Women’s sports are restricted to women, and so there is the thorny problem of defining who is eligible to compete as a women. I personally think testosterone levels alone are a poor way of doing this but that is the route that has been taken.

Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt were freaks (IMHO). Why were they allowed to compete?

They compete in open events where there are no restrictions. Womens’s sport is a restricted category. Those restrictions need to be applied and these restrictions are nothing to do with gender and everything to do with biological sex.

Except XY chromosomes and testes don’t disqualify you from female sport.

But they should!

As far as I’ve heard, apart from her having unusually high testosterone levels, her actual levels, her genetics and whether or not she has internal testes are not in the public domain

Whilst it’s true that there has been no specific confirmation, the ruling only applies to XY athletes. If Caster Semenya is not XY this ruling does not apply.

This ruling is not about levelling the playing field, it’s about defining eligibility for women’s sports. If you accept that women’s sports should exist then there have to be rules to define eligibility.

People without testes don’t have testosterone levels that need to be reduced.

I can see how an individual may see that this ruling is unfair, but excluding people with xy chromosomes and testes from female competition seems reasonable, and this ruling doesn’t even go that far. As athletes can continue to compete with reduced testosterone levels and the ruling only applies to certain events.

The ruling for having to reduce testosterone levels applies to 46xy athletes so it’s logical to assume therefore that Caster is XY

smart thermostats with locks, to prevent the pesky punters from using too much gas (bah humbug!)

I think if you’re thinking in this direction then AirBnB might not be for you. I wouldn’t stay somewhere that didn’t allow me to control the heating.

Crochet? Minimal costs to get started and loads of free patterns on the internet. Kept me sane when I was working away from home.

GR11 – did a section of it (starting in Andorrra and going West) in August time and most of the time we were on our own. A few crowded areas near entrances to some of the National Parks. we did a mix of campsites and wild camping

Has the law changed because (3 years ago) we didn’t need a visa for Canada with UK passports…?

You need to get an eTA (Electronic Travel Authorisation) if arriving by air. They brought it in a few years ago

Canadian eta is valid for 5 years, so just the one needed

My heart rate was slowest just before I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Slower doesn’t always equal better.

Sort of.

I’m very average at drawing with pen/pencil and paper, but I’m ok at creating vector images in illustrator (for fabric printing mostly)

We were there a couple of years ago in April – we didn’t have the best weather but still found plenty to do.

Enjoyed walking among the tea –

Whale watching – yes i know it’s a turtle

Various hot springs

(If you do have a hire car go to Furnas (above) late in the day after the tour buses have departed. We went at about 4pm after a day of rain and it was wonderful.

And just general walking and scenery. We were staying in an AirBnB place to the west but it would have been better to be a bit more central. The drive back along windy roads got tiresome after a while.

We found a great steak place in Ponta Delgada, but there was a lot not open due to the time of year we were there

I acknowledge there will be induction hobs out there that don’t have these limitations, but my research suggests they cost considerably more than other induction hobs and require dedicated high-amp supplies and certainly cost more than a gas hob.

That was our experience when considering what to put in our kitchen, we were having to move the gas pipe anyway so considered putting in an electric connection instead, but a nice gas hob was cheaper than the cheapest induction. We’ve since stayed in several rental places with induction hobs, I’ve not found one I can’t hear buzzing yet and these appeared to be decent makes (neff, siemens etc.)

It might be worth just getting a price from an OS reseller, they’d probably be able to supply 50k fairly easily and can probably laminate/mount it too – I’ve had things printed for work through John E Wright before

Unlikely to get a professional printer to print that out, given the copyright issue.

Really, it’s the sort of route that could be rotated and to run left to right, or top to bottom instead of being printed with North at the top (I hate maps without North at the top though!).

I’d personally have it with the route in colour fading to black and white for the surrounding areas if printing it with North at the top.

People use a variety of swim trackers in the club I go to, normally the issue is undercounting though, overcounting is unusual.

Ah, the extended questions give a much smaller area – spoggy and croggy aren’t used very widely

Mardy is my giveaway word. Sounds like some get a much smaller suggested area, mine covers most of Lincs, Notts and Yorkshire

So windy here, the birds were getting blown about a bit.

Saw our usual collection of sparrows, coal tits, blackbirds, robins and great tits. Also a gold finch which we see less often especially in the winter. Normally they visit when the dandelions have gone to seed after I haven’t mown the lawn for a while :-)

There’s a Tawny Owl calling survey

https://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/project-owl/tawny-owl-calling-survey

We hear a female squeaking quite often if our bedroom window is often, a male less frequently. Never seen them.

I have a flex 2 and a charge 3. I bought the flex2 to count lengths at swimming mostly. Replaced with a charge3 when that was released as wanted something to function as a watch too.

Not really had any issues with either. Battery life is fine, occasionally have to restart my phone to get in to sync but have never had to do a reset.

I don’t use it as a serious training tool so it doesn’t have to be perfect. I can connect to the api and calculate monthly totals and create all sorts of other useless statistics and that’s good enough for me :-)

They’re both Prism kites, the green is a Quantum and the red is a Nexus

I’d really like a stacked one.

Find flying our little stunt kites really relaxing. It’s a while since we’ve had them out.

Kites are for all ages

It’s a kit from Tuin. The frame is something we assembled ourselves, not part of the kit, but the plastic supports came from Tuin as well.

Took about 6 hours to get this far, then another day for the roof

Photo showing the supports we used

We built a wooden frame for our cabin, which fit into base pads sat on paving slabs. Adjustable so easy to level on the slight slope we had. Worked out far cheaper than a concrete pad.

I watched them play a set in HMV in Nottingham when they released their first album. I still have the signed album somewhere, HMV is long gone alas.

 it’s because nuts are a major allergen that kills people. 

So is milk

NUTS 1 statistical regions – UKC, UKD and UKE

So North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber

Butter, sugar and cinnamon is great if you want a sweet option

Floating is not swimming. I too can sit on the bottom of the pool unaided by additional weight and I can’t float. I can swim just fine though

Sinking legs are normally caused by poor core strength not ‘heavy’ legs.

Clearly, once you suppress testosterone, males are left with no physical advantage at all

This issue is nothing to do with intersex people, so I’m not sure why all the debate about various genetic conditions.

It’s about whether individuals who are genetically xy and are raised as males with the physical attributes  that entails should be allowed to declare themselves female and compete against natal women. Many seem to think that the hardships trans people face mean that women should give up various sex based protections enshrined in law in the name of equality.

Favourite to date – S’well bottle

Two holes, the alimentary canal is essentially a tube and nobody would say your mouth and your anus were the same hole!

and a shame that most 3rd party capsules are plastic.

Some are moving away from plastic, there were at least 2 brands in Tesco the other day selling aluminium capsules.

I don’t think they do under 18, plus bosses daughter did it (and I know the outdoor industry) and the pay vs paying your own flights, insurance, medical etc meant that in effect she had a couple of weeks travelling paid for and 10 weeks work – but no spending money at all really. In addition it is a 6 day week, and the camps are middle of nowhere.

Actually very variable where you end up so it’s a bit potluck. I worked 5 day weeks of 12 hour days, and had the opportunity to work extra weeks which I was paid an additional salary for. I came home with about 1500 dollars at the end of it, even after spending a month driving from St Louis to New York and back. It is true that if you can make the arrangements yourself it normally works out cheaper than going through Camp America or the like. Children of a couple of colleagues have gone and worked at the camp I worked at by applying direct. Although under 18 means it’s not an option anyway.