I didn't see the show itself, but I saw the fireworks from a house in North Van. Looked pretty, but it seemed really short. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the HSBC Celebration of Light. [grin]

I'm all for peaceful (and even not so peaceful protests if called for), but the anti-olympic protests seemed so disorganized.

In terms of the olympics themselves:

-Vancouver is not a winter city, anyone complaining about the lack of snow is dumb. (The snow on Cypress is a bit of a disaster, but honestly, in four years living here, this is the first year that snow has been a problem there. It's abnormal, no one's fault).

-In terms of comparing Vancouver to Beijing, I'm pretty sure billions of dollars go a bit further in China than they do in Canada. I'd rather the Olympic commitee (which means the government, which means my tax dollars) not overspend more than they already did so that some douchebag watching TV thinks my city is perfectville. I'll take an awesome diverse city with beautiful mountain backdrops over a city full of smog so think it made it hard for athletes to breathe anyday.

-Protests were allowed to take place, from what I hear there was only one arrest, even with some trouble makers throwing objects at police.

-I'd take a World Cup of hockey every 4 years over olympics any day. I only watch the hockey anyways. Get on this IIHF! Ditch the world championships if you need to (I'm too busy watching the Stanley cup playoffs anyways).

Quote: Original post by taby
Games would be cool.

I played Left For Dead 3D at CES convention. I wasn't impressed, mostly because of the in-game text.

Quote: Original post by ChurchSkiz
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.

I guess you don't watch NBC or it's affiliated cable channels or the Colbert Report either.

Quote: Original post by ChurchSkiz
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...

I don't think that comparison is fair. The winter games never get the hype that the summer games receive. There are 2600 athletes from 83 nations competing in Vancouver [1]. There were 11000 athletes from 204 committees competing in Beijing [2]. The Chinese government viewed the Olympics as a kind of "coming out" party announcing the emergence of China as a global player. What they did surpassed what any country has ever done in preparation for the Olympics.

Quote: Original post by taby

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. :)

That's interesting, but what a guy in Pilsen, CR is missing is the American media context that Time magazine article is a part of. From the right and the center, the East Coast blizzards have been used repeatedly to claim that global warming is a hoax (along the lines of if it's snowing and it's cold then we can't be warming). My point was that if you're going to buy into that logic, then you can't escape the counter logic that the absence of snow in Vancouver in January and February refutes the claim that global warming is a hoax. I'm not saying that either instance of weather proves the case one way or the other. I will say that abnormal weather in both locations supports the climate change hypothesis more than it refutes it.

If you'd like me to offer a rebuttal to Lumo's blog post, I can do that, but I wasn't seeking to derail the thread with a discussion of climate change. I was offering an explanation of the lack of widespread promotion of the games in the USA.

Quote: Original post by LockePick
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.

I enjoyed watching the ceremonies. I thought the illusion of having blue whales swim across the floor of the arena was great. And it was nice to see Canadians expressing some nationalism for a change. You guys deserve it.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
If you'd like me to offer a rebuttal to Lumo's blog post, I can do that, but I wasn't seeking to derail the thread with a discussion of climate change. I was offering an explanation of the lack of widespread promotion of the games in the USA.

That would be very interesting to me actually, but like you say, it should probably be done on his blog. As ornery as he may seem to some, he does debate things (insomuch that he provides counterarguments, at least). You are very good at debating, so I think it would be a good match! I am a complete dumbass in a lot of areas, and yet miraculously he's still very pleasant to me, so I think you would do just fine. :)

For the record, I know that we have a giant hole in the ozone layer above the South Pole. We've definitely messed things up in the past. I distinctly remember hearing about this ozone hole when I was in Grade 5, to which my response was a very loud and surprised "Holy shit"! I cannot believe that my Catholic teacher let that one slide. The look on my classmates' faces was priceless.

P.S. I'm Shawn Halayka. I post comments on his blog a lot, though most of it is unimportant nonsense heh.

Maybe I will later. Right now I have to mow the lawn.

Quote: Original post by LessBread
Maybe I will later. Right now I have to mow the lawn.

LOL. I didn't mean to sound insulting. :(

I didn't take that as an insult. I really did have to mow the lawn and I wanted to get it done before the sun went down.