I've got nothing on the subject other than oh god the logo design is terrible. Seriously, seriously, horribly, terribly terrible.
MURRIKAH
Nobody ever hears about Botswana, South Chad, Comoros, or Bhutan, but they all get to walk and carry their flag. Sure, they'll probably get smoked in their competitions, but for some people just getting to compete is enough of a prize.
Yeah, I liked the whole thing. I was in a pub in Holborn watching the ceremony, and semi-drunkenly joked that the jigging nurses were pretty much exactly like the real NHS nurses. Ha ha ha!Yeap, you got it, according to the Dutch commentator, the dancers are all employed as nurses at the NHS!
Oh wait, there's a fucking huge NHS sign now. Maybe they were actually serious about that...
James Bond, Mr Bean, Paul McCartney, some big internationally recognisable faces (plus Mike Oldfield). Afterwards the commentators were saying it was "very British humour", as if nobody else was going to understand it. I'm sure Boyle made it as easy to "understand" as possible.Yes, 'British humour' insofar that it involves the British and it's humorous...
No fair, you have the home-field advantage. :P
She just sat there looking miserable throughout the entire thing,
Anything that tries to capture Britishness is an instant failure. It's almost a universal law!
And much of it from that old guy they pushed out on stage at the end.
I hear he was in a band once.
(Or twice.)
Wait, I forget. Did he write Bohemian Rhapsody or Mull of Kintyre?
Watched a bit of Women's volleyball yesterday. One of the girls on the American team is 6'7" and yes she blocked freaking everything and holy crap she's 6'7".
Wait, I forget. Did he write Bohemian Rhapsody or Mull of Kintyre?
Wasn't it Layla?
Wait, I forget. Did he write Bohemian Rhapsody or Mull of Kintyre?
Let's ban cyclists from going near the Olympic games (http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/07/olympic-spirit).
Wait, I forget. Did he write Bohemian Rhapsody or Mull of Kintyre?
For me, it's almost always been about gymnastics in the summer, and figure skating in the winter.
and then Snape killed Dumbledore.
On topic: Tonnes of Empty Seats Prompt Protests (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19031974)
No fair, you have the home-field advantage. :P
And my degree is in Engineering, so he's a bit of a worship figure for me. And my wife said that if we had been able to have a child, she would have called him Isambard, just for the pleasure of shouting that name in the park!
Oh my baby how I love your legs.I'm so glad I get that one.Wait, I forget. Did he write Bohemian Rhapsody or Mull of Kintyre?
Scrambled Eggs (working title...)
I really liked the men's sabre fighting yesterday. While épée and foil can be a bit slow and cautious, Sabre is all about ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!. Really cool.
quite typically German I have to say.
A timing error in the last second of the bout led to a 20-minute delay and a controversial decision in the women’s individual épée semifinal today between South Korean Shin A Lam and German Britta Heidemann, one that has the Korean refusing to leave the piste.
With one second remaining in the match, Heidemann needed to score a touch on Shin to win the match. (Shin would have advanced if they finished the round tied.) The clock then got stuck, allowing Heidemann several extra seconds to score, which she did. Officials then congregated for a long time discussing their options before finally awarding the win (and a chance at the gold medal) to the German.
If you buy a drink on an Olympic venue, like a Coke or a Sprite, they remove the caps and then give you the drink. You're not allowed bottle lids, as they are a "throwing nuisance"I hear the same practice is used at the local summer festivals. To my sister they said that a bottle with a cap is more dangerous when you hit someone on the head with it. To the people working at the bar they say that if you give the bottle without a cap, the customer can't put it in their bag when it's full, or store tap water in it after they're empty, thereby encouraging them to buy more soft drinks instead. Rumours? Excuses? Corporate malice? I don't know, you be the judge.
The bottles are fine though.
:l
If you buy a drink on an Olympic venue, like a Coke or a Sprite, they remove the caps and then give you the drink. You're not allowed bottle lids, as they are a "throwing nuisance"
The bottles are fine though.
:l
If you buy a drink on an Olympic venue, like a Coke or a Sprite, they remove the caps and then give you the drink. You're not allowed bottle lids, as they are a "throwing nuisance"
The bottles are fine though.
:l
Whenever I take the tube (which is, admittedly, not very often) I avoid breathing anyway! :D
NBC major fail example #527, from Wil "the birthday boy" Wheaton's tumblr (http://wilwheaton.tumblr.com/post/28430012353/are-you-fucking-kidding-me-nbc-via-reddit)
As soon as the Chinese win there will be accusations. I'm not convinced at all that it's justified.. the other day this 15-year old Latvian won and there were no accusations. No one accuses the USA of doping (at least not regularly) despite some very famous incidents.With regard to all the weaselly smearing remarks being aimed at Ye Shiwen, I am reminded of Pope's famous lines about Addison:
That's more to do with the perception of the US litigation culture than anything else though.So basically, if Chinese athletes are going to get some respect, they should start throwing lawsuits around. :(
In the case of the Korean fencer, I'm not quite sure how the organisers justify giving someone a win this way. Something else for the Olympics to be proud of. Maybe Korean athletes should start throwing lawsuits around too. :(
(http://i.thestar.com/images/44/fc/cc3a5c774f1785244eb35d23bf72.jpg)
They really won't let "innocent before proven otherwise" rule.Certainly not where Ye Shiwin is concerned, but when Michael Phelps won his 19th medal, did the Chinese coach immediately rush out and publicly brand him a doper and cheat? Oh, but he's clean you say? You mean he's passed the drug tests. So has Ye. It is very hard not to see a double-standard here.
I don't know what it is about these games, things just seem weird. The fencing, the Chinese swimmer, the badminton, and the stupid new rules for gymnastics and among other things just make things seem so fishy. I don't remember this going on in 2008.
Federer got kinda owned by Murray just now, I'm really happy for the Brit but Roger never really felt present in the match today, he seemed tired to me. I don't really see him staying in the game until Rio 2016 to get another shot at this.
You mean he's passed the drug tests. So has Ye. It is very hard not to see a double-standard here.
Weed is a "performance enhancing drug" now?
Weed is a "performance enhancing drug" now? I didn't know art was an Olympic sport :psyduck:
I have a lot of sympathy for that view. I find the jingoism distasteful - it feels like leapfrogging on the athletes' achievements and claiming them for "their country".Well... Arguably the "totalitarian model" of the Olympics has triumphed. State funding (whether from taxation, or government-approved crypto-taxes like national lotteries) is poured like a river into the quest for sporting glory. Promising youngsters are identified and raised in hot-houses like the Australian Institute Of Sport. The whole approach was pioneered by Nazi Germany, East Germany, the Soviet Union etc., and is of course standard in China today.
And apparently there is a LOT of action, because Durex supplied 150,000 free condoms to athletes in London.The Duke of Marlborough Effect (http://evil-pop-tart.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/duke-of-marlborough-effect.html) (and obviously the Sarah Churchill Effect too).
I helped out at the library today (well, I helped a bit, and I read a lot, and now I'm on the computer until it closes) and we played Olympics bingo with the kids. We managed to figure out what almost all of the 25 pictures were meant to represent - I decided that one of the three (!) horse sports was Equestrian, one was Dressage and one was Pentathlon, according to the librarian I was working with. We were totally stumped by a picture showing two people facing each other with their arms outstretched, so we decided that patty-cake was an Olympic sport. It was never pulled as a bingo card anyway so it didn't matter.
Women's boxing I find as distasteful as I find all boxing.
THERE'S A FLIP SIDE TO EVERY COIN!
pictures and stuff
So John Lennon sang at the closing ceremony - nice balance to Macca at the opening.
Sad news (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/doping-belarus-shot-putter-stripped-gold-105700047.html), but not unexpected, if you watched women's shot put final.She ate a steroid brownie?
The tributes to Lennon and Freddie Mercury were great!
Could have done without George Michael, but I'm pretty glad Brian May turned up, along with Daltry and Townsend. I would've been seething if those two had been missed out!
I suspect that may be something called "Wrestling".
Yorkshire came twelfth overall (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/aug/13/yorkshire-olympic-medals-gold-tourism-leeds-york-dales-sheffield-hull?newsfeed=true).
Women's boxing I find as distasteful as I find all boxing.
I should also acknowledge that there are sports which have a lot of dangerous contact, but where the contact is not of the essence - i.e. does not contribute to the win, but may even lead rather to a penalty if not controlled appropriately - games like Rugby football or American football, for instance. These I dislike for that element but do not condemn.