"inexcusable" and "garbage"

Wherein more Floyd Landis


via Trust But Verify, who is also running a multi-part series called "Integration For Idiots":

“Integration is the process by which we get the carbon isotope ratios out of the IRMS peaks. The sample gets burned up into carbon dioxide, ionized, and detectors for the m=44 and m=45 ions determine how many of carbon 12 molecules vs. the number of carbon 13 molecules there are.

Even the idiot version is making my head hurt. Guess I shouldn't try reading it right after a heavy lunch.

From the Gainesville Sun:

“Bruce Goldberger [University of Florida forensic toxicologist], who heads the world's leading academy for forensic science, said he came to the case reluctantly. Goldberger is not an expert on performance-enhancing drugs, but Landis' lawyers wanted Goldberger to examine the methods that French scientists used when collecting and analyzing Landis' samples.

"I looked at the data and I couldn't believe what I saw," he said. "So I called (Landis' lawyer) Howard (Jacobs) and said, 'I'm in.' "

Goldberger delved into boxes and boxes of documentation, tracing the initial test that showed Landis had heightened testosterone levels. Goldberger said he found cases where paperwork used to track Landis' samples in the lab contained errors, opening up the possibility that some of the testing had been conducted on specimens that weren't taken from Landis.

In other cases, scientists used White-Out to correct mislabeled paperwork. The use of White-Out is a major taboo in testing circles because it covers up mistakes and makes it impossible to retrace what may have gone wrong, Goldberger said.

"It's inexcusable in a lab that does doping analysis," said Goldberger, who is president of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists.