This is gearing up to be the worst olympics event ever. First off, I didn't even know it was starting tonight. Not because I don't care, but because I never actively search for the date of the olympics. Generally a few weeks before it starts I am bombarded with advertising so I know when to start. This year: nada, zilch, zip. I haven't seen one commercial.

Second, Vancouver WTF?? Could you be any more lazy? The last olympics were hosted in Beijing. A city that literally transformed itself with billions of dollars of spending just so that it could wow the world with technology and architecture and culture. Followed by a city that barely swept the street...

Last, is possibly the worst winter weather (or best depending on your pov) I can remember. Slushy moguls, watery bobsleds, man-made snow for the downhill events. Sounds like a recipe for the suck.

Here's a picture of the opposite side of the competition mountain. Filling in the gaps will be slushy machines:

Quote: Original post by LessBread
By the way, has it snowed there yet?

The conditions on Cypress have been shockingly bad but most of the events that require snow are happening in Whistler which has had the most snowfall on record (10m to the end of January) and just got another 20cm yesterday so it's really only the freestyle skiing and snowboarding that are in trouble. Looks like they might be ok with some last minute snowfall though.

Good things about the Olympics: it's much easier for me to get to the airport now thanks to the Canada line; the road up to Whistler has been greatly improved which means shorter journeys when I want to go snowboarding.

Bad things about the Olympics: it seems to have been a hugely inefficient use of money (but that's pretty much what always happens when you give governments money); it's lead to some rather sensational news stories that don't sound like the city I've been living in for the last 6 years.

I hear a lot of locals complain about the poverty/drug issue here but coming from the UK it just doesn't seem that bad. Unlike London, Manchester, Birmingham or other big cities in the UK it doesn't seem to spill over and make Vancouver feel like a dangerous place to live. I wouldn't particularly choose to walk through Hastings at night but I'd feel safer doing so than I would walking in a lot of parts of Manchester I've been to.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
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.

Funniest thing happened the other day... some alarmists went in the completely opposite direction and decided that the major snowstorms are a sign of climate change (e.g., man-made global warming, to be specific).

http://motls.blogspot.com/2010/02/global-warming-causes-snowstorm-in-dc.html

I'm neither an alarmist (they're too emotional) nor a denier (they're not emotional enough), but I do keep track from time to time -- the laughs are worth it. :)

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.

Er, what? I see hamburgers made by other chains (the Pit Window/Burger Bar being a notable one here) being sold all the time on the UBC campus at least if not in other places.

Quote: First off, I didn't even know it was starting tonight. Not because I don't care, but because I never actively search for the date of the olympics. Generally a few weeks before it starts I am bombarded with advertising so I know when to start. This year: nada, zilch, zip. I haven't seen one commercial.

Really? For the past few months Olympic commercials have taken up loads of airtime here.

Quote: A city that literally transformed itself with billions of dollars of spending just so that it could wow the world with technology and architecture and culture. Followed by a city that barely swept the street...

If the government tried to pull anything like the Beijing Olympics spending-wise, there would be tremendous amounts of public backlash. Hell, there already IS public backlash!

The spending isn't to "wow the world" it's mostly used as an excuse to help the local economy. It's enormously helpful to local businesses to spend that kind of money locally. it's not like that 10 million dollars disappears. It goes into worker's pockets and gets spent by them in the local area boosting the whole local economy.

Quote: Original post by LessBread

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.

The other building I have stared at for the past five weeks
Panasonic 3D Experience

not to mention the Acer and Samsung Pavilions! I hear Acer is showcasing a fat monitoring computer <== o.O lol what? I haven't been to the VPL in a while so I haven't witnessed such events, but I will be sure to swing by just to check this out... I need to pick up a book anyway..

Quote: Original post by Buttacup
The other building I have stared at for the past five weeks

That seems to be a 1920x1080 shot, downsized. That's impressive by itself, because it's probably from a fancy video camera (fancier than what I have anyway heh). :)

Nice seagull!

Quote: Original post by Buttacup
Panasonic 3D Experience

Cool! Is this all holographic technology, like that old Sega game, but far more advanced in size and image quality?

Edit: Nope, I guess it's glasses based on the polarization of light. That's not holographic.

Anyway, Paul Bourke has done lots of cool holographic projects. There is a video where he is co-demonstrating a "Much Better Than Star Wars" quality projection of an image of a skull into thin air. Incredibly cool, but I can't find the link at the moment. :(

Some different holographic work by Paul Bourke.

Quote: Original post by taby
Edit: Nope, I guess it's glasses based on the polarization of light. That's not holographic.

I do believe they are showcasing this 3D!

I don't own a television but I could see myself buying something like this for gaming... I'm a try to sneak a peek over the next two weeks...

Quote: Original post by Buttacup

Quote: Original post by taby
Edit: Nope, I guess it's glasses based on the polarization of light. That's not holographic.

I do believe they are showcasing this 3D!

I don't own a television but I could see myself buying something like this for gaming... I'm a try to sneak a peek over the next two weeks...

Games would be cool. Wildlife shows would be intense.

Wish I could go to the Olympics, but not this time around. I'm sure there's lots of fun things to do.

The opening was pretty amazing and touching and tasteful, I thought. It's good that at least if we're going to waste all this money we can show something meaningful and uplifting in the end. Still would've been better to use the money on people, but the money is spent and it's time to enjoy what we've got.

Bringing in the torch in a wheelchair, lighting the torch with four people, cheering for nothing more than 'please' and 'thank you'. It was a Canadian opening. Made us all very proud.

Mechanical failures, but still looking awesome anyways, was also very Canadian.