2008 Beijing Olympics

[Tormund Ukrainesbane]

Ignorant American question. When the athletes from the UK play they are listed as being from "Great Britain" and not the UK. Does this mean that Northern Ireland doesn't count? Or do they get to play for Ireland? Or is it just a different way of referring to the same country (NI included)?

[Padraig]

I believe the official name should be Great Britain and Northern Ireland but people are lazy, although Northern Irish people can compete for either that team or the Irish one.

[IheartTesla]

The NBC gymnastics coverage has lost all pretence of objectivity and is now a cheerleader for the American team. Probably because Bela what's his name is married to the women's coach. Bob Costas is usually ok, but he too was a bit superlative in his praise.

[Bronn Stone]

[quote name='The Inquisitor' post='1481168' date='Aug 15 2008, 00.34']These games have been a bloody scandal, and that's about it.

We would have thought that the IOC would have learnt the lesson after Berlin 38 and Moscow 84.[/quote]

The only games in Berlin in '38 involved planning invasions of neighboring countries.
The only games in Moscow in '84 involved athletes dreaming they were in Los Angeles with most of the non-Warsaw Pact world.

The lessons I learned in both 1980 Moscow and 1984 Los Angeles were that allowing a nation to host the Olympics does not necessarily involve an endorsement of their entire political history or reality.

[Altherion]

Whoa! If you haven't seen it, watch the 100m men's butterfly -- what Phelps did there is seemingly impossible.

[IheartTesla]

Yeah, although I'm not sure he actually touched the finish line first. Do they have touch-sensitive sensors on that pool?

[Jaxom 1974]

[quote name='cyrano' post='1482378' date='Aug 15 2008, 21.33']Yeah, although I'm not sure he actually touched the finish line first. Do they have touch-sensitive sensors on that pool?[/quote]

Touch sensitive sensors, cameras above and human eyeballs. It looks legit and possibly one of the most legendary finishes of any Olympic event.

[SergioCQH]

The FINA officials performed a video review and confirmed the results.

[Altherion]

[url="http://www.canada.com/topics/sports/beijing2008/story.html?id=4dc5030e-13f8-4091-902e-d671d919cdc2"]The Canadians[/url] say that the video shows one result and the clock shows another. The officials decided to trust the clock. Phelps was pretty lucky here, but a little luck is occasionally in order.

[Tyria]

Canada finally has medals!! In the last half hour Canada got a silver in mens rowing and gold in womens wrestling. Yay!

[ithanos]

Congrats Canada! Been watching the rowing too where NZ's picked up it's first medals, a gold and a bronze ;)

[Biter]

Medal count:
Canada - 3
Azerbaijan - 5
Phelps - 7
Ukraine - 9

[The Iceman of the North]

We got a gold and silver this morning, even better, Sweden lost their lone bronze medal leaving them with just two silver medals so far.

[Ender]

I really have zero idea of how they function, but I assume the sensitivity of the touchpad is really enough to justify a determination between a few thousandths of a second difference in finger touches while not triggering from water movement. Or do they need to be "pressed"? Given that the Serbian was gliding into the wall, is it possible he outtouched Phelps but wasn't able to apply enough pressure on the touchpad in time for it to register over Phelps who literally stroked into the wall?

I kinda think it should have been ruled a dead heat, but in technology we trust I guess.

[EHK for Darwin]

[quote]I think people are being hyper-critical here. They put on an amazing show. So some of it was an illusion - big deal. Hell, parts of it that people thought HAD to be computerized were done completely by human power (the undulating boxes, e.g.). Pretty amazing accomplishment, in my opinion, and totally outweighs whether 3% of the fireworks were CGI or that they subbed in a prettier girl for lipsynch duty. Like that doesn't happen a hundred times a day everywhere else in the world.
---
Couldn't agree more. The kind of nitpicks I see from the U.S. press seem to be purposely missing the point.[/quote]


Eh...actually, I think you guys are missing the point. This is another piece in a pattern of near constant unsettling, Orwellian insanity that has been China's behavior leading up to and into these game. All dedicated to ensuring that their greatest single propaganda event in history goes well. Except the more they try to 'patch the cracks', the worse and more sinister they look because their methods of patching are a tad extreme at times or at the very least unsettlingly odd. Lets take a look at just the shit I recall offhand.

Telling the Beijing locals that cats are evil disease carriers so that the towns people massacre all them...all so the streets look a tad bit nicer come the games.
CGIed fireworks from the country that invented them with a dozen different lame excuses as to why.
Fat girl shoved in a corner, pretty girl up front lypsynching. We made sort of a big deal when Milli Vanilli and the Simpson girl did this, its appropriate here. Doubly so cause it had to be kind of devastating for the ugly girl. Can you imagine? Getting prepped for her big moment and minutes before the officials are like 'You're to ugly to be the face of China, go sing behind the curtain!'
Political dissidents being given police escorts so they don't do or say anything nor approach anyone.
The rural imported slaveworkers who built half the damned Olympic venues shipped back to the country so that they don't disturb the visitors...same with the poor and homeless.
Promised protest zones, still prevented. And i'm sure anyone requesting to protest got a 'warm' welcome.
Low attendance brings the bright idea of trained and uniformed cheer teams...who show up for countries they have no interest in and half the time probably sports they've never seen before...but they know how to cheer damnit!



There's more, but this is enough. One by one, probably not a huge deal. But taken together, this does become quite disturbing. This desperate need to create a fraud of perfection where none exists and none can exist. And their methods in achieving it makes them look worse in the process, yet they don't seem to grasp that. They never do. They would be better served letting flaws exist, they're unavoidable, its more than a tad unnatural without them, and they avoid yet another blunder that makes them look like an alien species to the rest of the world.

[Sandello]

And Ukraine won four gold medals!

[The Iceman of the North]

Another spot in this pattern was the way the girls carrying the country names during the opening ceremony was selected. Apparently they had to strip naked in front of the selection committee.

[EHK for Darwin]

[quote name='The Iceman of the North' post='1482569' date='Aug 16 2008, 07.03']Another spot in this pattern was the way the girls carrying the country names during the opening ceremony was selected. Apparently they had to strip naked in front of the selection committee.[/quote]

Shit, I hadn't heard that one. And I'm not gonna even buy that under the 'create a fraud of perfection' justification. That's just dirty ole men getting their rocks off I think.

Man, If I was a high official in a country where submitting your individualism to the state was the highest honor....

"Your country demands that you and your entire (legal age) cheerleading squad service me sexually!"

[The Iceman of the North]

[quote name='Il Chiarimento' post='1482575' date='Aug 16 2008, 14.14']Shit, I hadn't heard that one. And I'm not gonna even buy that under the 'create a fraud of perfection' justification. That's just dirty ole men getting their rocks off I think.[/quote]
Of course the story doesn't say whether there were any men present during this selection process. What's interesting though, is that these details were mentioned in an article in Beijing News, a state run English speaking news service, on the "rigorous training process thousands of young girls went through before they could appear in the opening ceremony". It apparently didn't occour to anyone that this would be considered problematic.

At least the diaper story is more a "those crazy Chinese" kind of story.

[EHK for Darwin]

[quote]Of course the story doesn't say whether there were any men present during this selection process. What's interesting though, is that these details were mentioned in an article in Beijing News, a state run English speaking news service, on the "rigorous training process thousands of young girls went through before they could appear in the opening ceremony".[b] It apparently didn't occour to anyone that this would be considered problematic.[/b][/quote]

Which really is the case for most of this shit. They just don't seem to grasp why we find half their actions fricken abhorrent. Fucked up culture at times. No worries though. We'll win them to the light side with MTV and Cheeseburgers!