FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: emdasher on August 05, 2008, 07:52:22 PM
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Meh.
It might have just been the commemorative coins that came with boxes of cereal, but I seem to remember caring more about the summer Olympic games in the past, when they weren't overshadowed by the economic and political issues of the host country. Just like China to take the fun(?) out of it.
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Yeah, between the massive time difference, the chinese regime, the god-awful ugly stadium and my increasing jadedness with the commercialism and non amateurism of the olympics, I'm really not as excited about these games either.
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It's always nice to have something decent on at 1:30 in the morning.
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I've never really cared about the Olympics, but this year I'm even less into the Olympic spirit than usual. It's the government. It's also that whenever Chinese nationalism wells up, it does so in very unfortunate ways, and this occasion seems like an expression of that pattern.
I'm all for China's economic development and progress, but I dream of the day that the Chinese government becomes a responsible player on the world stage, not a bad boy. I don't really expect that to happen in my lifetime.
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I kinda like the stadium. Is that bad?
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I've never really cared about the Olympics, but this year I'm even less into the Olympic spirit than usual. It's the government. It's also that whenever Chinese nationalism wells up, it does so in very unfortunate ways, and this occasion seems like an expression of that pattern.
I'm all for China's economic development and progress, but I dream of the day that the Chinese government becomes a responsible player on the world stage, not a bad boy. I don't really expect that to happen in my lifetime.
I think you're right about this. The IOC said the games were going to open up China through world scrutiny. But as the world scrutinizes China's flaws and misdeeds, the Chinese people take offense and inch towards chauvinistic nationalism instead of compelling their government to make positive changes.
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the olympics were done forever for me once they ended that mcdonald's promotion where i won, like, 20 cheeseburgers in the summer of '84.
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that's alotta cheeseburger
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[youtube]aqNaAU2vXlI[/youtube]
Then there's this
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I loved the senseless interruptions, and the expressions on the faces of the host and one of the other commentators during the guys rambling about symbolism.
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All I'm interested in is the basketball. A lot of the other major sports (track and swimming) feel too tainted, either knowing that people are juicing or that the swimmers are in those super expensive new suits.
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The olympics would be so much better if they could out all the feel good stories. What will there be, around 40 hours of prime time coverage? At the very least 10 of those hours will be telling back stories. I expect to hear a lot about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
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I expect to hear a lot about the Lost Boys of Sudan.
Done. One of them is carrying the American flag for the opening ceremonies. Leave it to America to be an ass for a solid 8 years and then pull out a symbolic middle finger in time for the Olympics. U-S-A. U-S-A.
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Ain't that the truth.
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the logo for the London summer games isn't making me that excited for 2012 either
(http://blog.case.edu/james.chang/2007/06/06/2012Logo_LondonOlympics.jpg)
really Enguhland? that's what you're going with? none of your proud countrymen gonna step up and fix this?
Samir, I'm looking at you buddy.
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the logo for the London summer games isn't making me that excited for 2012 either
That's because you're not taking the ecstasy that comes with the logo.
I loved that in Children of Men they had a character walking around in an old ratty t-shirt from the 2012 Games.
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I'll probably check out the opening ceremonies and maybe some basketball, but that's probably about it. I'm sure I'll accidentally end up watching some other events since NBC is going to have it on like 40 channels non-stop.
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I agree with both of Gilly's points.
Cut the Horatio Alger backstories, and it is nice to wake up at 5am and see high-stakes sports.
(I always skip opening and closing ceremonies. They remind me too much of Super Bowl halftime shows.)
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it is nice to wake up go to bed at 5am and see after seeing high-stakes sports.
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Anybody else feel sorry for the people that live in Beijing who are being kicked out of their homes for the event?
Here's a good article from today's NY Times about how China commissioned Zhang Yimou to oversee the ceremony? It sounds like he's basically become a huge sell-out to the Communist rulers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/08/sports/olympics/08guru.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Zhang%20Yimou&st=cse&oref=slogin
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I ended up watching some of the opening ceremony and they had some pretty cool moments.
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Yeah that end was pretty cool. Sure wish they didn't feel the need to commentate everything though.
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Sure wish they didn't feel the need to commentate everything though.
"I'm not even going to try to touch that name."
::)
Shut up.
Those commentators stunk.
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I'm watching the ceremony now. It's totally mind-bottling.
Gets pretty corny at the end, though, what with all the children. I always hate that "The Children Are the Futre" shit. Like "The children are going to have to fix global warming!" No they're not. It's too late. The children are going to have to move out of coastal cities as they flood. They're going to have to form post-apocalyptic gangs or some shit, but they don't have to fix the shit that we already blew the opportunity to fix.
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I ended up watching some of the opening ceremony and they had some pretty cool moments.
I thought it was amazing. The human precision was like nothing I've ever seen before. That LED screen was a bit much, but still really freaking cool.
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NBC has all of the games streaming. No commentary! You have to install Microsoft Silverlight though.
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I enjoyed the opening ceremony. I will probably watch as much as I can, but with the time diff that might not be that much.
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I watched a few minutes of the opening ceremony and thought the combination of protestations of "you're our friends," "harmony," "the wall is coming down," etc., with the display of a terrifying ability to get masses of people to work coglike in unison was a tad disconcerting.
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I GOT IT.
Uh, oh, that passed. *phew*
Pretty intense for a minute there.
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I watched a few minutes of the opening ceremony and thought the combination of protestations of "you're our friends," "harmony," "the wall is coming down," etc., with the display of a terrifying ability to get masses of people to work coglike in unison was a tad disconcerting.
Yeah, they kept mentioning during the lightbox drumming thing that they had to tell the drummers to smile so they wouldn't look so intimidating.
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I'm watching the ceremony now. It's totally mind-bottling.
Gets pretty corny at the end, though, what with all the children. I always hate that "The Children Are the Futre" shit. Like "The children are going to have to fix global warming!" No they're not. It's too late. The children are going to have to move out of coastal cities as they flood. They're going to have to form post-apocalyptic gangs or some shit, but they don't have to fix the shit that we already blew the opportunity to fix.
2030 Winter Olympics
(http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/~mickbrod/postmodm/m/jpg/ferals.jpg)
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I saw some pictures and they reminded me of a teacher I once had who was obsessed with showing us videos of the North Korean Mass Games where thousands of people would have spent months and months training to perform exactly in unison.
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The mass games are like a combination of the Nuremberg rallies and Cirque du Soleil.
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All I know is that the American rowing team consists of two guys the announcer called "the Winklevoss twins" and that means that I love them.
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the olympics are boring. I want to be excited, but I just can't.
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It is really hard to get excited when it's next to impossible to avoid knowing the results. It's harder than ever. Watching the Olympics shouldn't be such a chore even though there's nothing that can really be done about it.
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I find it hypnotic. I could give a shit about volleyball usually, but I watched like an hour of it today.
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yes, beach volleyball. takes an hour to watch, both exciting and pretty people play it. very nice!
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I'm watching women's field hockey right now. I don't think I've ever seen the sport before. I like it. I also think in my infant-caring haze last night I saw BMX riding. Really? That's an Olympic sport? Got no room for baseball or softball but we can fit in BMX racing. Huhh.
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I'm watching women's field hockey right now. I don't think I've ever seen the sport before. I like it. I also think in my infant-caring haze last night I saw BMX riding. Really? That's an Olympic sport? Got no room for baseball or softball but we can fit in BMX racing. Huhh.
It makes no sense. I still don't get why they are dropping softball and baseball in 2012, but introducing BMX racing. Someday they'll probably throw in NASCAR or stock car racing.
Anybody watching the men's bball right now?
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Dropping baseball seems odd, but I support BMX racing being added. It's popular worldwide, it's very athletically challenging. Also, it is rad.
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I was kinda anti-Olympics leading up to things, especially in light of losing Conan for the 2 weeks it's on. BUT, I can't stop watching the damn thing, and it makes me wish I could watch the CBC feed of it too, to see some non-US competitions as well.
But eff beach volleyball. A lot.
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But eff beach volleyball. A lot.
How dare you.
(http://i.usatoday.net/sports/_photos/2008/08/09/Bush-veachvolleyballx-large.jpg)
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Touche'.
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I'm watching women's field hockey right now. I don't think I've ever seen the sport before. I like it. I also think in my infant-caring haze last night I saw BMX riding. Really? That's an Olympic sport? Got no room for baseball or softball but we can fit in BMX racing. Huhh.
It makes no sense. I still don't get why they are dropping softball and baseball in 2012, but introducing BMX racing. Someday they'll probably throw in NASCAR or stock car racing.
This (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_sport) might clear up some of the confusion surrounding demonstration sports during the Olympics. I believe BMX is there in that capacity.
I wish they would bring back Team Free Rifle Shooting.
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Has anyone been watching the men's football/soccer? I can't seem to get a handle on the timezone/schedule issues -
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/Schedule/FB.shtml
Is that EST? I am temporarily in Portugal, making things more complicated and I can't tell if the website is detecting my ISP and adjusting the time accordingly. Or is the website hosted in China, making it 5 hrs ahead?
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It's too bad that softball is going to go since the Olympics are really the only time it gets to be on the main stage. But baseball doesn't really work because all of the worlds best players are in the middle of their seasons and it's impossible to put those seasons on hold for a couple weeks because of pitching schedules and pitch counts.
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It's too bad that softball is going to go since the Olympics are really the only time it gets to be on the main stage. But baseball doesn't really work because all of the worlds best players are in the middle of their seasons and it's impossible to put those seasons on hold for a couple weeks because of pitching schedules and pitch counts.
How do you feel about the World Baseball Classic?
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Is that EST? I am temporarily in Portugal, making things more complicated and I can't tell if the website is detecting my ISP and adjusting the time accordingly. Or is the website hosted in China, making it 5 hrs ahead?
I have a hard time understanding when things air too - for us in Europe things start around 3-4 am and keep going until like 2-3 pm. That's all I got.
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It's too bad that softball is going to go since the Olympics are really the only time it gets to be on the main stage. But baseball doesn't really work because all of the worlds best players are in the middle of their seasons and it's impossible to put those seasons on hold for a couple weeks because of pitching schedules and pitch counts.
How do you feel about the World Baseball Classic?
I like the WBC for the most part. At least it's before the season but it still messes pitchers up because the arm is so fragile and anything that takes the pitcher off their normal schedule can hurt them. A lot of people say it's a mental thing that by protecting pitchers so much you make them think they are going to get hurt and they also argue that pitchers never used to get hurt so often which is a bad argument, they actually did, we just only remember the iron men.
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Number 1 Olympic sport:
(http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/00HE6jbeB2exq/610x.jpg)
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I'm a pretty big sports fan, and I love the drama and agony of competition and the idea of athletes from around the world competing at the highest level. But between the human interest stories and some events that just don't translate to TV, I get a feeling that the Olympics Games are presented on NBC as sports for people who don't like sports.
I do however love the streaming events on NBC's website. It's sports the way I wish all sports were presented: No commentary and just the sounds of the game. There are some events like Field Hockey, Weightlifting and even Archery that are really compelling but don't make it onto TV.
Oh yeah, and even though I love the game, I'm not really sad to see baseball go after this year. Baseball's reach is basically limited to America and the nations in its sphere of influence in the 20th century (Cuba, Korea, Japan etc.) much like Cricket is limited to former British colonies. I wish the IOC would dispose of more sports this way.
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I don't think I like the fact that the olympics are allowing more and more pro athletes in.
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I don't think I like the fact that the olympics are allowing more and more pro athletes in.
Why? I'm all for having the best of the best. What's the big deal if they are getting paid to do what they're good at?
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I don't think I like the fact that the olympics are allowing more and more pro athletes in.
I'm not sure I agree with that. Policing the boundary between amateur and professional is impossible, and potentially unfair to athletes that are may be given a choice between making a living and pursuing their sport at the highest level. Not all "pro" athletes are rich. I think the ideal of the amateur is kind of aristocratic-- who but the idle rich could afford to achieve at the highest level of any sport?
Furthermore, people who are considered "amateurs" but have their every need taken care of by someone else are really professionals by any reasonable definition, even if it's not the one that prevaricating sports committees use. If a coal miner lived in a coal mining camp and was given food and barracks to live in, would that person just be an "amateur" coal miner?
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I am now in full mode Olympic fever after that swimming relay. Wow!
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Michael Phelps is a fucking superstar. My god. Did anyone else see that?? He just won by a full body length.
He makes that shit look easy. PRIDE OF BALTIMORE.
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holy hell. the men's gymnastic team has been showing up tonight!
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Michael Phelps is a fucking superstar. My god. Did anyone else see that?? He just won by a full body length.
He makes that shit look easy. PRIDE OF BALTIMORE.
More credit needs to be give to the last guy in the relay. He won it for them.
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Hey he gets credit too. But I just watched Phelps do that race and was amazed more than usual. I mean, he is so graceful.
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After criticizing the "human interest" angle of a lot of the Olympics coverage, I got sucked in by one story on Phelps last night that showed how much he eats every day. It's like 7,000 calories! For breakfast he had something like 4 egg and cheese sandweech, grits, fruit, some shake, then a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. They interviewed the restaurant workers where he regularly eats and they were just in awe.
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I got sucked in by one story on Phelps last night that showed how much he eats every day. It's like 7,000 calories!
Wow, that's like 3 Starbucks drinks!
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I got sucked in by one story on Phelps last night that showed how much he eats every day. It's like 7,000 calories!
Wow, that's like 3 extra-large venti Ted Leo-sized Starbucks drinks!
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Phelps did a great little interview on BBC Radio Five last night after winning the third gold (and before wiping his heat out);
Steven Parry: He's coming this way...he's shunning all the media...I'll see if I can get a word. Michael? Not a bad swim that, eh?
Phelps (without missing a beat): Can't complain.
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i have been enjoying the extremely passive aggressive tone of the american commentators about the chinese gymnasts. i haven't experienced so much thinly-veiled judgment since i told my family that i was moving across the country to live with a man i'd only spent 3 days with.
examples:
on screen, a chinese woman approaches the vault.
commentator 1: tell us about this gymnast.
commentator 2: oh this young lady is 20 years old, one of the older members of the team. when she was 3 years old, she was taken away from her family to train. she was only allowed to see them a few times a year. she would beg her family to come home but they said, no, you have to stick with the program, for the good of the country.
on screen, a chinese girl approaches the uneven bars.
commentator 1: ...the coach says that she is lazy, and that she could live up to her potential if she worked harder.
commentator 2: how is it possible that any member of the chinese gymnastics team isn't working hard?
commentator 1: that is just what her judge said, i don't know.
on screen, a girl who looks like she is 12 or 13 is about to get on the balance beam.
commentator: i will leave it to you to decided if she is quote unquote sixteen as her passport claims she is. she certainly does not look 16 to us.
this just scratches the surface of their commentary. it's kind of amazing.
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i have been enjoying the extremely passive aggressive tone of the american commentators about the chinese gymnasts. i haven't experienced so much thinly-veiled judgment since i told my family that i was moving across the country to live with a man i'd only spent 3 days with.
that's what i did!
as for the olympics, youre right. although, i picked up on it during the opening ceremonies (which i spent the whole time mocking) and that was enough for me to throw in the towel: im not watching the olympics.
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I'm only really interested in the caber toss. Someone text me when it comes on.
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that commentary sounds great. maybe the comentators were being snide because its clear that china is cheating (not that I give a shit)
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i have been enjoying the extremely passive aggressive tone of the american commentators about the chinese gymnasts. i haven't experienced so much thinly-veiled judgment since i told my family that i was moving across the country to live with a man i'd only spent 3 days with.
that's what i did!
high 5 for impulsive romantic decisions!
that commentary sounds great. maybe the comentators were being snide because its clear that china is cheating (not that I give a shit)
oh i forgot about that. in addition to the fact that some of the chinese gymnasts are no way 16 years old, the commentators are alluding to scores being fudged. what they're doing is predicting what the score should be based on the prelim scores and the faults, so when they announce the official score and it's several tenths of a point higher than their prediction in china's favor, they'll say things like: "i guess they didn't count all those faults," etc.
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If you wanna see corruption, look no further than the wrestling mat. Would've been more fair if Vince McMahon organized it.
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If you wanna see corruption, look no further than the wrestling mat. Would've been more fair if Vince McMahon organized it.
It would be so much better if they allowed professional wrestlers.
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this is nothing new. bart conners is from norman and is a public speaker and he constantly talks about how terrible he russian judges were.
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I know, it's nothing new. It was just brought up again yesterday because of this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/wrestling/7560604.stm). It may come off as a petty protest, but Abrahamian lost the semi under very odd circumstances. He got screwed in Athens four years ago, and screwed again yesterday. That guy was one of few potential Swedish gold medal hopefuls, so the story is all over the news here today. If only he could invoke a rematch clause and make it a No Holds Barred, No Disqualification Street Fight. With a guest referee.
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Yeah Phelps is awesome, but Usain Bolt? Holy shit that guy can fly.
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You mean there are sports other than men's swimming? Every time I've flipped past the Olympics it's been around the clock non-stop coverage of swimming.
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You know what is totally batshit insane?
POLE VAULTING. That is what.
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see also: Trampolining.
In other news, I was very happy to see Brazil beaten, and have two men sent off, in the Soccer semi.
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Yes! That was beautiful. Nigeria v Argentina in the final! Should be great.
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In other news, I was very happy to see Brazil beaten, and have two men sent off, in the Soccer semi.
That's my biggest gripe about football/soccer. I hate that you could be a man or two short effectively the whole game. That's way too big of a penalty and it feels like a cheap win at the end of the game. I'm throwing red cards or at least the effect of getting a red card in my hate pit.
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well, in this particular match, both red cards came along in the last ten minutes, after brazil were already two down. and both were terrible, rash tackles anyway.
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The website says the final is on at noon on Saturday. Is that like midnight here EST? Damn I hate timezones.
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midnight friday is correct.
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The Croatian Men's Water Polo Team and their matching moustaches is perhaps the greatest thing I've seen this Olympiad.
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"Thunder" Bolt strikes again! World record again, this time on 200 m.
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My friend Jeff got detained for protesting human rights violations!
http://freetibet2008.org/globalactions/citizenjournalists/
I didn't even know he was there...oy.
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"Thunder" Bolt strikes again! World record again, this time on 200 m.
Just saw it. He made it look like he was racing high schoolers. You simply don't pull away from the pack like that on a sprint at this level of competition. I was impressed!
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I still love the podcast of The Bugle. Here's their most recent headline
"Russia gets gold at new Olympic sport of invasion"
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I've been greatly enjoying the BMX racing.
Watch it before you judge. The athleticism and skill of those riders is incredible. If any cycling belongs in the Olympics, it does.
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Here's a good piece on the removal of baseball from the Olympics.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/12/no-use-crying-over-olympic-baseballs-end/
I think I agree with the author that it's no big deal. The Olympics were never very important to baseball, the best players (MLB) never played, and the stupid setup sometimes excludes countries like Japan and Mexico where baseball is big. I have no doubt that baseball was probably seen (in defiance of the actual facts of where it is played) as too American by the Europe-heavy IOC, but who cares? No one gave a shit about Olympic baseball until it was removed.
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Usain is the truth.
WOW.
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What was up with the English guy previously who was waving his opponents in and taunting them as he crossed the finish line?
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Messi FTW!
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I was cheering for Nigeria but Messi displayed some pretty intense skills the second half.
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Usain is the truth.
WOW.
Usainamonster
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The Gold Medal Men's Basketball Final is a real barn-burner.
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Here's a good piece on the removal of baseball from the Olympics.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/12/no-use-crying-over-olympic-baseballs-end/
I think I agree with the author that it's no big deal. The Olympics were never very important to baseball, the best players (MLB) never played, and the stupid setup sometimes excludes countries like Japan and Mexico where baseball is big. I have no doubt that baseball was probably seen (in defiance of the actual facts of where it is played) as too American by the Europe-heavy IOC, but who cares? No one gave a shit about Olympic baseball until it was removed.
I think it's a big deal because baseball has really grown as a world game. Only the WBC and Olympics are able to showcase the Cuban players who are superstars. Tommy Lasorda, the most vocal man for Olympic baseball, said that every team should give one player to the Olympics and play without them for 2 weeks. I don't know if that would work, maybe they could protect a couple players. I think it would be a better idea to end the season later in Olympic years, not play the all-star game and take a two week break for the Olympics. Every pitcher would be able to stay on schedule since a team only plays 9 games at most so with a 5-6 man staff they'd be able to get regular work- probably less since the bullpens will be all-star pitchers as well. It wouldn't be that hard to do.
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But I think part of the reason that baseball was removed from the Olympics is just that MLB was unwilling to make any moves whatsoever towards letting MLB players participate.
The blame for the sport being removed lays as much on MLB as the IOC.
That said, (apart from relays) team sports are a kind of a tricky fit in the Olympics. But it's crazy that handball makes the cut and not baseball or rugby.
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Yeah, team sports are tough because of all the money involved. If the MLB agreed to something I was describing they'd be losing a huge cash cow every four years in the all-star game. The thing that sucks about the World Baseball Classic is that the MLB is basically trying to set up their own Olympic games and make all the profit of it. That isn't right and I'm sure that made the decision to cut baseball a little easier for the IOC. Bud Selig is a slime bag.