I'll have to be totally honest and say I didn't know that the 2010 Winter Olympics were even happening.

Goes to show how little has been spent on marketing, I guess.

"> Coke Tent

I've been staring at that damn tent for 5 weeks now. I spent the last week singing in the entrance that is visible in the video. I must say it kind of saved my ass after having quit my job as production engineer for a kitchens manufacturer. Many individuals have been recruited and trained for this event as 90 day SPs(security persons.) Many of them where less fortunate individuals and they are being payed a good wage. It has been interesting, cold and rainy but interesting....

Please drunk sirs, please refrain from climbing the water towers! I really don't want to have to employ the first aid training I have just received....

I hope at the very least people take some time to enjoy what has come out of the jumble. I know many organizations have come together and put a lot of extra time and effort into making this event possible. There's that lady who made peanut and pecan brittle for five thousand all by her lonesome for the Ontario Pavilion... No really I hope people have fun. I have in my own little way, playing my wee little part.

The torch thing went by my apartment a bit over an hour ago; lots of people, rather chaotic. The free pancakes didn't look very appetizing and I wasn't going to wait in that line for coffee.

Infrastructure is a good thing. The new train line to the airport and most of the way to the ferries is a very good thing. Yeah, jobs for people are good, even if it feels a bit police-statey downtown with cops, private security, bluecoats, and fences everywhere; there are helicopters circling through the night and cheerful propaganda plastered all over for Canada, Coke, and McDonalds to help us keep up our good-citizen Olympic spirit, yay!

The shows-of-force do make it pretty clear that if you were to get in the way at all there'd be a rapid beatdown. This is how things work in the world now, it seems -- if this is culture, it's very much organized in a top-down manner that rings hollow (eg. the failed Pepsi hockey chant thing).
( ..to say nothing of authoritarian.)

Methinks we are going to end up paying someone to make a lot more money off us than any of the little people are going to get out of it. I'm pretty supremely jaded by both the commercialism and the nationalism, but it's neat to see lots of people (and I mean the people, not anything official) from places all over the world; the from-the-bottom-up culture.

And on the upside, the weather has been lovely lately and the cherry trees are blossoming. Hope everyone enjoys the 2010 Spring Olympics!

I've somehow managed to see the Olympic Torch Relay twice. Once out at UBC, since I had just gotten out of class when it was going by. When I was on my way home this morning (a bunch of us went to the pub afterwards and I ended up sleeping at a friend's place), I got off the Canada Line Skytrain and what did I see? Georgia St. completely packed (meaning that I couldn't have caught my bus right then since it goes down Georgia) with people waiting for the Olympic Torch to go by. Just my luck!

Hopefully the mountains will get some snow soon.

Quote: Original post by Talroth
It always pisses me off when 'civil liberty' groups bitch and moan about less-lethal weapons. Yes, something like the LRAD needs to be tested by the police force and have protocols established before it is deployed, but I honestly kind of wish that some group would get overly violent during a protest of such devices, and get to watch a number of people take a bit of good old buck-shot.

If one of your first choices on how to address an issue you disagree with is to form a large and unruly mob and disrupt the lives of your fellow citizens, then you're doing things wrong.

It always pisses me of when "less-lethal weapons" are used to kill people...

The trouble with those weapons is that trigger happy cops are even more trigger happy when armed with them - tasering children and seniors and unarmed people who don't pose a threat [1]. The LRAD has been tested on Somali Pirates, Iraqis and protesters in Pittsburgh and San Diego [2], [3].

If governments make it impossible for people to protest peacefully (speech pens, sonic herding, etc), people will protest violently, forcing governments to kill them. Is that what you want? A little buck-shot?

Quote: Original post by djz
The Vancouver Library (recently featured in Dr Parnassus Imaginarium), and branches must cover up their Panasonic DVD players, as the official Olympic sponsor is Sony. Hamburgers cannot be sold unless they are McDonalds hamburgers.

That says it all doesn't it? Corporations bought the rights to the city, locals be damned. LockePick said it well.


By the way, has it snowed there yet?

I suspect that the right wing media in the USA will ignore these Olympics despite the opportunity it offers for expressing nationalism. 1. The absence of snow in Vancouver refutes the climate change denials they push and have been pushing strongly in the wake of recent East Coast blizzards. 2. They disdain the internationalism inherent in the Olympics (It's part of a U.N. plot to take over the world!) 3. NBC is broadcasting the games and with their "liberal bias" and Obama cheering, they're in on the plot! 4. Winter sports are not big in the South (where it doesn't regularly snow), so their primary audience won't be interested. 5. Fox News doesn't do international news (even when it's just across the border).

Why does this matter? Because the mainstream media in the USA by and large takes it's cues from the right wing media. They MSM won't ignore the games, but it's coverage of them will be lackluster (except NBC who will overdose on them). Maybe a decline in interest will be a good thing. If people stop watching, maybe corporations will loosen their death grip on the games allowing the focus to return to the athletics where it belongs.

Luger sustains life-threatening injuries in crash

Quote:
WHISTLER, British Columbia - A men's Olympic luger from Georgia crashed during training Friday and needed emergency treatment after an accident on the world's fastest track.

Nodar Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled near the finish Friday, went over the track wall and struck a steel pole near the finish line at the Whistler Sliding Center.

Rescue officials rushed to the scene and were performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Kumaritashvili was lifted into an ambulance. An air-rescue helicopter was summoned and was in the area over the track about eight minutes after the crash.

Kumaritashvili struck the inside wall of the track on the final turn, his body immediately going airborne and clearing the ice-coated concrete wall along the left side of the sliding surface. His sled remained in the track, and it appeared that the visor from his helmet continued skidding down the ice.

"It's a very rare situation," three-time Olympic champion and German coach Georg Hackl said. "But there's some things that you can't do anything about."

It was unclear how fast Kumaritashvili was going, although many sliders have exceeded 145 kph (90 mph) on this course. The track is considered the world's fastest and several Olympians recently questioned its safety. More than a dozen athletes have crashed during pre-Olympic training.
...

Have any athletes ever died at the Olympics? (Due to competition, not terrorism)

And speaking of Georgia...

Another emerging pattern associated with the Olympics is that it has become a distraction from military operations: Leaflet drop warning 'a prelude to major Afghan battle'. Time was that hostilities were supposed to cease during the Olympics. Now they seem timed to begin with the Olympics, perhaps to distract the public from casualty figures...

Quote: Original post by LessBread
Luger sustains life-threatening injuries in crash

Looks like he didn't make it...

Bummer.

Report: Luger dies in training-run crash

Quote:
WHISTLER, British Columbia - A men’s luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia died Friday after a crash during training, an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the situation said. The death cast a shocking pall over the Olympics hours before the Vancouver Games were to open.

The official told The Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee received confirmation of Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the 21-year-old luger’s family hadn’t been notified yet.
...

Quote: Original post by LessBread

If governments make it impossible for people to protest peacefully (speech pens, sonic herding, etc), people will protest violently, forcing governments to kill them. Is that what you want? A little buck-shot?

That is a rather insulting suggestion. I've been to several (supposedly) peaceful protests and demonstrations, and have taken a bloody nose and a burned arm after one idiot tried to light a fire bomb to throw at a building.

Such devices do NOT limit groups from peaceful protests, but still give law enforcement the option to use something other than direct gun fire if said peaceful protest turns into an out right violent riot.

Quote: Original post by Talroth

Quote: Original post by LessBread
If governments make it impossible for people to protest peacefully (speech pens, sonic herding, etc), people will protest violently, forcing governments to kill them. Is that what you want? A little buck-shot?

That is a rather insulting suggestion. I've been to several (supposedly) peaceful protests and demonstrations, and have taken a bloody nose and a burned arm after one idiot tried to light a fire bomb to throw at a building.

That was a question, not a suggestion, and an appropriate question given your statement: "I honestly kind of wish that some group would get overly violent during a protest of such devices, and get to watch a number of people take a bit of good old buck-shot."

Do you really wish that people would get shot? Given your new statement, it would appear that in such a situation you would be the unfortunate recipient of the buck-shot.

Quote: Original post by Talroth
Such devices do NOT limit groups from peaceful protests, but still give law enforcement the option to use something other than direct gun fire if said peaceful protest turns into an out right violent riot.

And never mind the agent provocateurs and the police riots...