h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember one Olympics, back in the day...the opening show was terrific, three of the gods flew in from Olympus, and some boyband with lyres...Leftheris from Athens had the gyros concession, but there weren't any chips, because they hadn't been imported yet, so you had to eat rice balls with it...

I must have the souvenir programme around somewhere, they printed the tickets on potsherds...the Spartans refused to show up, some political thing or other...really great races, though.

Ah, here's a souvenir:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Hoplitodromos_Staatliche_Antikensammlungen_1471.jpg

Of course, this was was back in the 6th Century BCE. Good retsina that year, as I recall.

Love it. You still seem so young, my dear. ....

Great thread. Just been reading all the postings. Yes, is there any game that hasn't turned professional? What abut Snakes N' Ladders. I think I could get a gold for that, because there is no skill involved, only luck .. or so I think. .

I've never watched the Olympics in great detail, until London 2012. . I have always admired athletes, though, like yeeeow how did they do that? I have an enduring weird fascination with the Shot Put, always loved the Shot Put, especially the strong ladies.

It's an interesting study, the competitive thing, all the highs and lows. Quite strange, the emphasis on the gold medal, the ludicrous pressure on some of the kids. I read an article in the BBC news just now about how even getting a silver or a bronze medal can seem disappointing to some.

I'm amazed at how London 2012 has caught my attention, the crowd are having such a great time, and I think it is inspiring for the younger generation. And there are so many more cyclists on the road already, it's becoming a hazard.

And apparently canoeing has really taken off. I don't think I'll be heading for the white water, being somewhat aged. . However, as a long time rider of a three speed bike, perhaps someone somewhere might at last consider me to be cool. . .

I'm not going around wrapped in a Union Jack or anything, but when Andy Murray won the tennis gold I stood up and punched the air, which was quite embarrassing really, considering I was in a public place. .

Oddly, Hyp, this is the first Games that I've been interested in, because it is the first one in my (admittedly short) memory that has been on during the day and I've been at home to catch any of it.

However, that is tempered by a good deal of annoyance at the commentary. In summary:
I am fed up of the medals table.
I am fed up of hearing about medal 'targets' (seriously, we had a medal target this year) and especially hearing about 'guaranteed' medals.
I am fed up of leaving an event half way through because a Brit is competing in a different event.
I am fed up of post-race interviews.
I am fed up of cameras being thrust in athletes faces, especially when they are upset.

It does seem like the idea of the Olympics is purely about the winning, and not about the taking part and the celebration of all athletes. I don't know about the coverage in the States, but I can't imagine it being an awful lot better.

It's all that you just complained about and more. NBC has left events before they were even over because the American was eliminated. (I don't know if that has happened this year, but it has in the past.)

I haven't watched the games with anything more than a passing interest since the 80's. But it's unavoidable. My dad watches it, so when I'm in his house, I catch some of the events. NBC has a long history of bad coverage. I will give them this, at least this year they've made an effort to show all the events. They have something like 8 channels on basic satellite/cable and they also have their website (There have been complaints about that as well). This is much better than their first foray into multi-channel coverage, the dreaded "Triple Cast" of '92. It was a disaster. They thought viewers would happily spend between $95 - $170 to see events live for half a day then repeated vs. tape delayed to primetime for free. The coverage was dismal for all but the most popular events so those who did spring for it were left very disappointed. My dad really thought about opting for it (they ended up slashing the prices) but once he saw the duplication of event coverage he didn't bother. He wanted to watch Archery but they gave it just a few 5 minute segments as usual on their main free broadcast and no coverage on the triple cast.

But their coverage is still insanely jingoistic and loaded with silly interviews and voyeuristic focus on crying athletes.

Apart from catching a few moments coverage on television screens in a bar, I haven't seen any of the Olympic coverage and I'm glad. The BBC web news coverage has been quite nauseating in its enthusiasm for 'Team GB' (I'd love to spend five minutes alone in a room with whoever came up with the idea of 'Team ').

I don't think the headlines could have been more extravagantly and sickeningly fulsome in their descriptions. So much so that you'd think the participants had just discovered a cure for cancer.

Mind you, how many other countries have at least two knights of the realm and the monarch's granddaughter (14th in line to the throne) competing and winning medals?

Badminton, actually, is also a serious thing in Denmark - we've had numerous champions both in Olympics, World Cups & the All England (!) tournament. Been on the Olympic programme as long as I can remember. Actually believe we've won a couple of medals in same sport this time - including a gold one? Hard to keep up while vacationing...

It would be pretty hard to televise the entirety of every single event. Does anyone know the total number of athletes participating this year?

Santra, I apologize for thinking badminton is not a proper sport. It clearly is in much of the world. Mea culpa. This shows that we look at things through our own experience and bias.

Now if they would only add an event involving spud guns, hillbillies could participate.

Wait for Hallowe'en, Hypatia, and watch the televised punkin chunkin'. Some boys from over in Acme were in it last year.

They use trebuchets and home-made cannon to hurl pumpkins. It's quite a sight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4JUZHiiNWQ

I've given some thought to pumpkin chunkin' and I believe if I had the means and the money, I could transform the sport. Trebuches are nice, centrifugal launchers and air cannons are quite impressive. But just wait until someone brings a RAIL GUN!
http://science.howstuffworks.com/rail-gun.htm

With a modest rail gun, one can adjust the phases of the propulsion magnets to maximise the g-force on the pumpkin in such a way to get maximum distance without making "pie".

You'd fit right in. My sister is a physic teacher (just retired), and she always had her students out chunkin punkins for a learning activity.

For a few years I owned a 12' long, 2" I.D. potato cannon. It was designed to resemble a German "88" anti-aircraft gun. The fellow I got it from was an interesting character, to say the least.


(Oh, and after actually reading that article I linked to, what I had in mind was a coil gun or Gauss gun. Much more control with those without tearing itself apart after a few shots. Basically the same technology that propels maglev trains.)

It was at the games in Korea that the lead NBC host reported that Capt. Mark Phillips would not be participating in the cross-country event because his horse was injured. He then opined, why didn't Capt. Phillips just get another horse? After a zillion equestrian fans called in to school him about eventing, the enormous amount of time and training etc. etc., this NBC host became angry, repeated that he didn't see why Phillips couldn't go on without the horse ( ), and punished the eventing fans by cutting off all further coverage.

After all, he was there for the boxing.

And that was when I stopped watching NBC's interpretation of the Olympics.

NBC did not show the men's football final (Brazil v Mexico) live, because there were no Americans in it. Instead I will be watching it on ESPN a little later this morning, and hoping it's the full match and not just highlights.

Is it still on

Did they not even carry it on their dedicated soccer channel?

It was a clusterbomb of bad info online. The NBC olympics channels all showed the final as being at 8 am BRITISH TIME. None of them displayed the final as being scheduled to be shown.

Then ESPN listed it as something they would be showing at 8 am my time, which was when I realized I'd been misinformed by NBC's artless and clueless web page.

But ESPN did not show the game, and it took me 5 minutes of channel hopping (with hope in my heart ) to find it on one of the secondary NBC channels. So I missed that first goal, but got to enjoy the rest of the game. It was great!

I shouldn't have had to work that hard to find it. I'm glad NBC did show it, though.

There were a few pubs and bars around here opening early to show it today. The same places that usually open early at the weekend to show Premier League games.

If only we could get them to show all five days of a test match

Test match, test match................. where

The Brazilians drummed all the way through the game and that made me think of the West Indies laying a test match at Edgbaston.

nothing can beat a test match, nail biting 5 day one are the single most best thing