Vimeo: Mountain safety.
I’m not responsible if this one makes you snort your coffee.
Don’t like heights?
Don’t watch this.
Washington Post: Figure skating scoring is not what it used to be.
“Of course, the system isn’t set in stone. The pendulum has swung from a completely subjective free-for-all to a points-driven strait jacket. It eventually will swing back to some middle ground.”
CR4: The Science of Curling.
Rob Galbraith’s got all the better Olympic photo galleries in one place.
Endless enjoyment. Speaking of Oly, I’ve become a fan of the Norwegian Curling Team’s Pants on Facebook.
LA Times: NBC commentators don’t know when to shut up.
“Even with the more restrained commentary, an air of participation inevitably creeps in — the commentator’s admiration and enthusiasm or, occasionally, anger and bewilderment become part of the experience, which then becomes more about entertainment than athleticism. [snip] But if that’s what you’re going for, then why not liberate Morgan Freeman from the Visa ads (which are, by the way, really terrific this year) and have him in the booth? Freeman can inject a sense of drama just by saying the athlete’s name.” Timely. I realized I’ve been getting cranky in the evenings, just from being blathered to death watching the Olympics. Last night, I started muting the sound, and had a much more pleasant time.
Washington Post: Lee wins gold; Kramer DQed for not switching lanes.
Oh man. What a mistake.
Stern.DE: Olympia in Vancouver: Der ganz normale Fan-Wahnsinn.
Snapping the fans in Vancouver. You’ll be rewarded just for that first click ...
No offense, folks …
I thought Davis/White were better tonight and last night than Virtue/Moir. Subjective, of course. I have to remember that skating judges love balletic claptrap (thinking of Oksana Bayul in 1994 with her fluttering fingers and choppy-toe-hops). The capper for me was putting Domnina/Shabalin with their bungee-cord routine before Belbin/Agosto. Did the judges see the same performance I did?
Though I may not agree with it, congratulations to all.
NY Times: Bursting With Pride for Team USA on NBC’s Olympics.
“It’s that kind of goofy stereotyping that fuels the Olympic churl. Commentators who are versed in every childhood trauma of American team members are at times stunningly reliant on hoary clichés to describe foreign athletes.” Yet the American ski team seem to have a hefty guy with a deep voice who does nothing but yell their names, among other verbal encouragements, at the top of ski runs.
Boston Globe, Big Picture: Vancouver 2010, part 1 of 2.
Check the pants in #10, the perspective in #37. #21 has someone posing for her Wheaties box.
Newsweek, Hitchens: Fool’s Gold.
“… what we are seeing is the very essence of sportsmanship. Whether it’s the exacerbation of national rivalries that you want — as in Africa this year — or the exhibition of the most depressing traits of the human personality (guns in locker rooms, golf clubs wielded in the home, dogs maimed and tortured at stars’ homes to make them fight, dope and steroids everywhere), you need only look to the wide world of sports for the most rank and vivid examples.”
If not vented through sports, these cultural poisons would fester, I think. I can turn off the television, walk onto my back courtyard, and I’m surrounded by lizards doing pushup displays of their blue chests, dashing off to defend their territory. They do this all day long, every day of summer. In sports, these aggressions are done with blunted, faux weaponry and largely impotent display. Sports are not completely harmless, but what is the alternative?
NY Times: On and Off Olympic Short Track, Ohno Is in it for Long Haul.
“A typical workout: eight sets of two repetitions at 1,000 pounds on the leg press, one leg at a time, holding the weight between each set. Then bench hops. Then one-legged hops. Then, in the afternoon, treadmill training, alternating each minute between 12 and 15 miles an hour for 20 rotations.” Good lord. Something to aspire to.
Alma-Multimedia Vancouver.
Various panoramas of Whistler. Elise, click the middle one and fish around with your mouse.
Washington Post: Lindsey Vonn crashes, as Riesch takes super-combined title.
C’mon, folks ... give Julia Mancuso some respect. Enough with Vonn and her bellyaching about her shin. Julia is now the most-decorated woman Olympic alpine skier in American history. Surely that’s worth dumping the ‘Golden Girl’ for? Or is Red Bull calling the shots for *everything* on the mountain?
Gizmodo: The Secret Snowboarding Superpipe.
Do other half-pipe competitors also get perks like this?
Stern.DE: Vancouver 2010: Die besten Olympia-Bilder.
Later: Dupes and additionals at the Denver Post.
NY Times: After Postponements, Men’s Downhill Is Ready to Begin.
“It snowed four or five inches a day at the summit, snow that had to be scraped off. It was a mix of rain and snow in the middle of the course, which left the snow surface inconsistent and bumpy. At the bottom, rain had left the course sloppy and slushy. In the last 30 hours, that snow has been pushed off to the side and a new bed of harder, drier snow was transported from higher elevations.”
Washington Post: The music of Olympic figure skating isn’t what it could be.
“’… it’s back to the status quo, where “all the guys want to see the action hero,” she says, and adds, “and all the girls skate to something Spanish.’” Just because you’ve got music editing software, doesn’t make you an expert in aural aesthetics. Note they neatly sidestep all the copyright issues.
NY Times, Olympics: Changes Made to Luge Competition.
“While insisting that the track at the Whistler Sliding Center was safe, Olympic and luge officials announced at a news conference here Saturday morning that the men’s competition would start lower on the track, at the current women’s start, to limit speeds. They also said that the wall around Curve 16 had been raised.” Trying to turn reality on its head? If the track was safe, you wouldn’t be putting these measures in place. Poor Nodar.
Boston Globe, Big Picture: Opening Ceremonies for Vancouver 2010.
Bet Nikons with their high ISO performance got a workout.
BBC Sport: Olympic luger Nodar Kumaritashvili dies after crash.
”Prior to the Vancouver Games, no Winter Olympic athlete had been killed during an event.” Slow that run down!
NPR: Frisbee Inventor Dies At 90.
“Morrison sold the production and manufacturing rights to his ‘Pluto Platter’ in 1957. The plastic flying disc was later renamed the ‘Frisbee,’ with sales surpassing 200 million discs. It is now a staple at beaches and college campuses across the country and spawned sports like Frisbee golf and the team sport Ultimate.” Shamefacedly, I must admit I didn’t know he was still alive. Trivia: I used to be a rated Frisbee ‘Master’ in college, my specialty was freestyle. I may even have my ‘thimble’ still ...
CNet: Yet again, NBC’s Olympics strategy is a Web loser.
FAIL. “Nothing other than curling and hockey will be shown live online. Nothing. Once you have downloaded Silverlight, you will be able to watch those two sports live or short highlight packages of other sports. That’s it.”
Howstuffworks: “How Olympic Torches Work.”
“It’s not just one torch making the journey to the Olympic stadium; it’s thousands. Anywhere from 10,000 to 15,000 torches are constructed to accommodate the thousands of runners who carry them through each leg of the Olympic relay. Each runner has the opportunity to purchase his torch at the end of his leg of the relay.” A lot of engineering for an overgrown Bic lighter.
