Winter Olympics

[Lazarus]

Anybody here in Vancouver? Curious how things are there with the games right around the corner? How's has it impacted you?

[Bicycle Bob]

See : As Olympics near, people in Vancouver are dreading Games - Dave Zirin - SI.com

As an economic refugee from the Gamed Area, I've kept up with all the news, and it is very grim. Whole business neighborhoods are being shut down, as are human rights. The thousands of people evicted to make room in the worlds' most expensive city are being harrassed into invisibility, and the Police will confiscate any Anti-Olympic signs displayed even through windows. Environmentalists remain appalled at the destruction from widening the sea-to-sky highway to Whistler, among other outrages to once-beautiful BC.
While the Olympics have tradititionaly been a magnet for political protests, these are also facing massive demonstrations against the conduct of the games and the business community itself. There's no reason for amateur sport not to be conducted on existing facilities at many locations, with a central awards ceremony to follow.
Canada is not expected to follow tradition and suspend hostilities in Afghanistan for the duration - for extra suspense, it has turned over the Vancouver Airport to the same security team whose cameras somehow missed the London Subway bombing of 7/7/05.

[Piwoslaw]

I'm glad that Zakopane, Poland, has almost no chance of hosting winter olympics, though they are trying.

I'm not a fan of Olympics, at least not in today's commercialized form. It's no longer about sports, it's about sponsoring and advertising on one side, and killing yourself and/or others just to break a record by thousandths of a second on the other. Thankfully, we've got good movie channels in our satTV.

Back to Vancouver: I hear the temperatures are way above freezing, so lots of resources are being wasted on artificial snow, etc.

[Bicycle Bob]

They have a "base" of big rectangular hay bales, and are bringing in snow at, I hear, $100,000 per truckload to replenish the stockpile. Let's hope they didn't take out too many trees for a waterlogged site. Here at the north edge of agriculture, we are having a very mild winter, unlike the southern U.S.

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by Bicycle Bob

See : As Olympics near, people in Vancouver are dreading Games - Dave Zirin - SI.com

Thanks for the link. This is pretty telling.

The original cost estimate was $660 million in public money. It's now at an admitted $6 billion and steadily climbing. An early economic impact statement was that the games could bring in $10 billion. Price Waterhouse Coopers just released their own study showing that the total economic impact will be more like $1 billion. In addition, the Olympic Village came in $100 million over budget and had to be bailed out by the city.

Security was estimated at $175 million and the final cost will exceed $1 billion. These budget overruns are coinciding with drastic cuts to city services. On my first day in town, the cover of the local paper blared cheery news about the Games on the top flap, while a headline announcing the imminent layoff off 800 teachers was much further down the page.

[luvit]

i don;t watch..

[Piwoslaw]

For the next few weeks Vancouver will be the doping capital of the world.
I found this this morning:
Russia sent clear doping message

[tjts1]

Funny part is, they don't even have any snow.
Lack of snow, warm weather is hot topic in Vancouver - USATODAY.com

I'll wait until the madness is over to go back to Vancouver. Its just across the border.