The London Olympics

[Lisztianwagner]

Spectacular final of diving from the 10m platform! Pity Tom Daley hasn't won the gold medal, I supported him; but his bronze was great anyway. Congratulations to the american diver David Boudia who has won the final, his score was really impressive.

[mahler10th]

The Olympics finish today.  MUSE will be playing in the final show.  That I WILL tune into.

***Suddenly does the Usain Bolt victory stance***

[springrite]

A poll showed that many people in China are not planning to watch the closing ceremony tonight. That is not surprising. But the reason many people gave was interesting. Apparently, many people (actually most people) did not enjoy the music part in the opening ceremony, which of course is a big part. The problem, which I imagine is true for many people around the world, is that there's so much music, a few verses from so many different musicians and different bands, many "old timers", so that unless you are very familiar with the history of western pop music and rock and roll, and have been for a long time and know musician who were stars before you were born, you go through a long time without knowing what is going on. And each song last such a short time that you can only enjoy it if you already know it well. Otherwise, before you can get a feel for it, it ends and the next group of old people starts again on another one.

Mr. Bean...now, he's someone these people know.

Anyway, good game from Spain. I was hoping they could win. But great showing. They should be proud.

[TheGSMoeller]

Spectacular final of diving from the 10m platform! Pity Tom Daley hasn't won the gold medal, I supported him; but his bronze was great anyway. Congratulations to the american diver David Boudia who has won the final, his score was really impressive.

Daley is a great sportsman, it's nice to see athletes get that excited over a bronze. Even when Boudia did his final dive, Daley knew he was outdone but graciously clapped for Boudia.

The men's 5000 race was more intense than I expected. The man Great Britain, name slips my mind, won.

[Opus106]

The men's 5000 race was more intense than I expected. The man Great Britain, name slips my mind, won.

Mo Farah. Amazing dash to the finish, I agree.

[springrite]

A poll showed that many people in China are not planning to watch the closing ceremony tonight. That is not surprising. But the reason many people gave was interesting. Apparently, many people (actually most people) did not enjoy the music part in the opening ceremony, which of course is a big part. The problem, which I imagine is true for many people around the world, is that there's so much music, a few verses from so many different musicians and different bands, many "old timers", so that unless you are very familiar with the history of western pop music and rock and roll, and have been for a long time and know musician who were stars before you were born, you go through a long time without knowing what is going on. And each song last such a short time that you can only enjoy it if you already know it well. Otherwise, before you can get a feel for it, it ends and the next group of old people starts again on another one.

Mr. Bean...now, he's someone these people know.

Anyway, good game from Spain. I was hoping they could win. But great showing. They should be proud.

Apparently much much of the closing ceremony will be a combo-pop-rock concert? *yawn*

[Brahmsian]

In other news:  Stephen Harper has decided that the Canadian flag will now be bronze and white. 

[Todd]

Interesting.  (I of course can't confirm if the article is accurately portraying the China's People's Daily article or not.)

[springrite]

Interesting.  (I of course can't confirm if the article is accurately portraying the China's People's Daily article or not.)

Reasonably accurate, but...

1:  There was no one who were looking for or was expecting a "blowout" over the US.
2:  The translation of the word "physique" made it sound very different from what was meant.
3:  The overwhelming sentiment was against the continuation of the system that sacrifice everything to get more medals. The Liu Xiang situation was discussed much and most people seem to think that he would have and should have stayed away but was "pressured" to be there. This criticism was on the state media as well.

I would like to see fewere medals but more people actually participation in sports and other physical activities as part of their lives. China get the most medal in sports that no one other than the ones in the training camps participate in. The total number of people who actually do gymnastics, diving, fencing, archery, etc. for fun, recreationally and not on a state sponsored program is probably close to zero. The overall physical fitness of the gerenal population is appalling. People want a change to that. The article is probably agreeing with this sentiment.

There are politicians (ministry of sport, the provincial sports administrations, etc.) whose career depends on producing good medal counts. But to say that the country is trying to use it to show Chinese supremecy is just hogwash, or at least way overblown to fit into this "Chinese Monster", "China Threat" propaganda, which is just as bad.

[Todd]

3:  The overwhelming sentiment was against the continuation of the system that sacrifice everything to get more medals.

Seems reasonable to me.

[springrite]

Criticize all you want. Hate it all you want. NBC won. The London Olympics is a ratings success.

The viewers may be angry. The viewers may protest. But these same viewers still watched. And NBC won. Capitalism won.

Hooray for Capitalism!

[Todd]

Ratings and NBC and capitalism don't bother me, but why the Spice Girls?  That bothers me.

[Gurn Blanston]

Ratings and NBC and capitalism don't bother me, but why the Spice Girls?  That bothers me.

I understand they sang both of their hits. What more could you want? 

[Karl Henning]

Just when you had figured that the '90s were incapable of generating original musical talent, along come the Spice Girls in a reunion calculated to reinforce your thesis.

[Sammy]

Ratings and NBC and capitalism don't bother me, but why the Spice Girls?  That bothers me.

They're very popular and look great; that's good enough.

[Todd]

They're very popular and look great; that's good enough.

They were popular, certainly.  But so was Bananarama.  Why no Bananarama?

[Florestan]

They were popular, certainly.  But so was Bananarama.  Why no Bananarama?

Because they are too old and certainly don't look as great as the Spice Girls.

[springrite]

They were popular, certainly.  But so was Bananarama.  Why no Bananarama?

Typical of GMG, always wanting a banana option!