Right then, what's the deal behind the Olympics? What do the HTH crowd expect to happen during the next month or so?
So far we've seen the 'We're under budget' message thrown around (when the reality is they're under their 5th budget figure, having gone over the previous 4 and are 40% higher than the initial budget figure drawn up in 2005).
Just last night we've seen a 'mistake' upset South Korea and increase political tensions over there.
It's pretty much certain that Assad is going to get it big time from the 'rebels' (in 'other' news after the Olympic fanfare) before the end of the closing ceremony.
Oh and as the other topic highlighted, we've had our Mayor compare it to the Tall Ships Race. Predictions please....
Hilary Clinton will call for Drummond to resign after a rebel uprising in Owton Manor. The BBC will show constant YouTube videos of the rebels shouting God is Great ...... God in this case being a certain moustached, Georgian who had the good sense to die in the same year that I was born.
It will be full of drugs as usual. The civil servants will lie about the benefits of having it here like Drummond did.
We will win virtually nothing, most medals will go to the hypnotised Chinese team and those who choose steroids rather than sugar puffs.
London will have 53m visitors a day that will all spend £8467 each presumably on taxis and a la carte food.
We will offend some nations deliberately by hoisting the wrong flag or playing the wrong national anthem.
We will see our bronze medalists on TV for what seems a fu***ng eternity :-[
For the Closing Ceremony, LOCOG decided to replace the real fireworks spectacle with a virtual display (as per Shanghai 2008).
This decision was made following the inadvertant launch of anti-aircraft heat-seeking missiles during the real firework display in the Opening Ceremony.
(ref BBC TV TwentyTwelve.)
The Olympics will be huge success. Yes there will be a few hiccups but you can expect that because of the sheer magnitude of the whole event. Team G.B will win a record number of medals and the two Hartlepool girls will bring great credit to the town.
I apologise for being so up beat.
Hartlepool will get a million visitors during the Olympics for no specific reason, there will be an overall loss to the council as nobody will actually stop their car and park but on a positive front it will bring millions of pounds of inward investment, we will be renovating 100 tall ships at a time, building wind turbines as fast as the ships can take them, the contents of the land fills will be used to stuff commemorative teddy bears, the brining of more ghost ships will be foiled by Scooby Doo and Bill Gates will donate a world class hospital with staff to the centre of Hartlepool ...I was in the shower, it was just a dream.
The concept of 'British' will be stretched to the limit as any medal winner who once set foot in the UK will be claimed as an ex-pat.
Someone will run 5/100ths of a second faster than someone else and otherwise sane people will jump up and down over this insignificant event.
We will be having the word 'legacy' stuffed down our throats for the next year.
I think the games will have quite a positive effect because, although nearly every country seems to be in dire financial straits, the UK will come over as being unphased by the whole economic mess and still having the confidence to stage such a massive event successfully. Whatever the flaws in the national character, we do seem to have the ability to 'Keep Calm and Carry On'.
Gold Metals: -
Biking 10
Swimming 6
running 2
throwing 0
jumping 0
Lifting 0
punching 4
sailing 4
rowing 3
shooting 2
an others 4
Fantastic event, makes me proud to be British
We haven't even had the opening ceremony yet and the North Koreans have re-adjusted the direction of their nuclear weapons.
Because of the recession the closing ceremony will consist of burning cars in Hackney and the sound of stolen mobiles from Tottenham court road.
I can see this site getting a hammering as there will be nothing good on TV for weeks.
This weeks Private Eye hit the nail right on the head.........
(http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4039/peye0001.jpg) (http://img502.imageshack.us/i/peye0001.jpg/)
Now theyre whining cos the players never sung the national anthem, why the fuc* should they if they are welsh or scottish !
If they played the welsh anthem would the english sing it !
Do the Welsh have their own Royal family now ?
Weren't the Tudors Welsh? The Stuarts, Scottish, William II was Dutch - not to mention the present Germans. Come to think of it - when did we last have an English Monarch? The Plantagenets were French and even Harold with the arrow in his eye went back to the Danish Canute.
My money would be Alfred of burnt cakes fame.
The best thing about the Olympics is that, if BBC News in anything to go buy, all wars, crime, disease and pestilence seem to have ended overnight. ;)
Quote from: steveL on July 27, 2012, 12: PM
Weren't the Tudors Welsh? The Stuarts, Scottish, William II was Dutch - not to mention the present Germans. Come to think of it - when did we last have an English Monarch? The Plantagenets were French and even Harold with the arrow in his eye went back to the Danish Canute.
My money would be Alfred of burnt cakes fame.
Mmm...suppose he's a possibility; I would opt for Cartimandua of the Brigantes...always good to support the local girl...
Why can't we have Monarchs with a bit of kudos like Atilla the Hun or Ivan the Terrible - somehow Charles the Plant Whisperer just doesn't have the same ring to it. ;)
Say it with flowers...give a Triffid... ::)
Sure i,ve just seen a field of cabbages at the opening ceremony or it might have been seb coe and the elite.
Has anyone else observed that when someone starts a statement with the phrase 'to be honest', they then proceed to be staggeringly insincere? ;)
Quote from: kipperdip on August 12, 2012, 10: AM
typify the lousy anti-British, politically correct, Guardian reading, leftist establishment toadies
You missed out 'Pro-Europe'
It must have been on the next page of your
'
Cliched Rants For The Paranoid' booklet!
Any ideas where the 'EU-27' finished in the Olympic medal table Mr K? Say in comparison to the USA and/or China...
Out of sight!
I had considered doing a top 3 of the EU, say GB plus France and Germany combined as a comparison to the US and China (higher populations) but thought I`d let it lie.
Quote from: kipperdip on August 13, 2012, 06: AM
When I present a reasonably worded, factually accurate report about the BBC imposing a PC motivated, opinionated directive on its news staff regarding reporting of the British Olympic Team's successes' you call this a "RANT"?
A paranoid cliched rant.
You come across as a totally fixated on the EU and have an irrational hatred of any person/organisation that does not share and promote your delusion
The concept of 'middle ground' has no place in your Universe.
You froth and foam and see enemies everywhere.
I worry you are one sandwich short of 'going postal'!
I thought the Opening and Closing ceremonies were very partisan (towards GB).
The crowd also tended to support our own competitors more so than those of other nations.
Definitely some bias shown there.
Those responsible should be smacked.
Dear Perseus - may I suggest that you read and digest the attached - it could lead to self-enlightenment... ;) Mwah... :-* LL-T
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-prove-it-really-is-a-thin-line-between-love-and-hate-976901.html
Perseus' comments on the prevalence of sportsmen and women with 'elite' backgrounds reminded me of a recent Telegraph blog...
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100174797/state-school-attitudes-to-sport-are-the-real-reason-so-many-of-our-olympians-come-from-private-schools/
My thoughts are that this reflects the difference in attitudes regarding competition and attainment between the state and private educational sectors. Over the last few decades the trend within state education seems to be increasingly like the Caucus Race in Alice in Wonderland, where everyone is declared to be a winner.
Thinking about it, didn't some primary school(s) recently ban sports day because it encouraged competitiveness?
Quote from: Lucy Lass-Tick on August 15, 2012, 07: PM
My thoughts are that this reflects the difference in attitudes regarding competition and attainment between the state and private educational sectors.
It is the 'networking' effect.
You go to school with all those destined to be in positions of power and thus are better positioned than the 90% of the population who have to earn their advantage.
How many sons/daughters of a 'connected' person will end up working in Macdonalds? They can't all be clever so where do the 'failures' work? (Rhetorical: They still get powerful/well paid positions through 'daddy')