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This is an interesting site which puts the Olympic medal count into perspective.http://www.medalspercapita.com
I agree as well. Whereas similarities in items between worlds can potentially be explained because they were portable (i.e. crossing the land bridge), large structures were far and few between. I suppose that some oral descriptions could have been transmitted this way, but I doubt it. I am more inclined to think of such pyramids as some of the simplest monumental structures one could build.
Is that the Chariots of Fire theme song? Yes, is does fit it quite well. It's been ages since I saw that movie. I must have been about 7 or so when I remember my parents watching it. I just remember them running on that beach with the music playing.
I was not thinking Gabby was black, colored, or A-A, when Costas made those inane and unnecessary racial remarks. He would have been a better man if he said Gabby inspired all short people -- like himself. The leftist media will never allow a post-racial society to exist.
That's true - we can't arrive at a "post-racial" world so long as it's considered a big deal for a person of color to achieve something new. By making a big deal out of these things, we are taking steps back into the "racial" world.
Really, Ski…the article is all of about 4 1/2 paragraphs…so I went ahead and read it all! 🙂 Anyway, YES I agree that the U.S. has a great advantage over other countries in ability to support athletes, facilities to help them train, organized competitions, etc. And YES, I do think it is a bit like cheering for Goliath at times. But what the author of that article fails to answer is this: what are we supposed to do about it? Stop training our athletes? Give the Third World athletes a head start in races? Sometimes you just have to accept the hand that you were dealt in life and deal with it.Life becomes problematic when one moves from feelings of "it would be nice to see the underdog win for a change" to "we're going to punish the bigger players or help the lesser ones". I think that liberalism tends to do the latter, backed by the force of law. This is really what socialism is all about at its core, isn't it? Guilt over one's success.Oh, one other thing - the U.S. is hardly favored in every sport, and the ones they typically show on TV are likely intentionally ones the U.S. does well at (women's gymnastics, track and field, swimming, etc.). African countries rule in long-distance running, Jamaica rules in sprinting, China rules in diving, and so forth. I wonder if the author of of that Salon article roots for the U.S. guilt-free in those sports.
I also heard that NBC put a picture of a U.S. woman swimmer with a gold medal just before showing the race itself. So much for surprises! And did you hear about the "racism" accusations because they put on a monkey commercial doing gymnastics right after Gabby had won the all-around for the U.S.? Two things - first, after Gabby had won it, Bob Costas went on some politically-correct spiel about how now maybe other African American girls will think they have a shot at it as well. I thought to myself - why in the world does race have to be a part of this? Why can't we celebrate a win for the U.S. without celebrating race? Political correctness injected into yet another thing. And secondly, the people accusing an Obama-friendly network like NBC of racism is kind of absurd. You have to wonder why politically correct people read racism into just about anything. Sometimes, they just need to "get over it".
The track and field coverage was good though. How about that Jessicca Ennis? She didn't have to win that last race to keep the gold, but she did anyway. The British crowd went wild!
What a great athlete. I didn't understand why in the final 800 m run the second place woman from Lithuania fell to the back of the race and was so far behind. Did she get hurt or something? She wouldn't have won gold anyway, but I think she missed the podium altogether because of that.
I remember a few years ago (and probably still today) that there were some American Indians likening Fort Snelling to some type of death camp. Mind you, Fort Snelling is right on the Mississippi in a prominent place in St. Paul and is probably a field trip destination for every other kid in Minnesota at one point or another. I had never heard such criticism of a place that I otherwise thought was a beloved Minnesota landmark, and the criticism rubbed me the wrong way.
What scares me is that someone like her can manage to stay competitive in a race despite her “Native American” comments, and that comment that Scott Brown played in that campaign ad (I think it was a comment similar to Obama's “you didn't build that” comment). How does a candidate survive that?
You can also watch Olympics on TV through the day on CNBC, MSNBC, and Bravo, in addition to NBC. I think you can also watch online if you subscribe to those cable channels.Anyway, I heard that the host country normally gets a 50% boost in the number of medals they receive. I guess there is a home-field advantage in these events.
I agree – this is getting annoying. I tried to avoid hearing about Michael Phelps but when I opened up my Yahoo start page it was there.
Congrats! I'm sure it's a good feeling. I second what Ski said…it will be fun when you are cited by others.
Ski, what did you think about what happened to the British men's gymnastics team yesterday? If you didn't see it, they were in line to receive the team silver medal, behind China (of course) and just ahead of Ukraine, and Japan in fourth place. From what they said, no one alive has ever seen the British men win a gymnastics medal at the Olympics. The crowd was going wild, of course. Then the Japanese team filed some appeal on the spot (before the actual medals were awarded) because of the scoring, and the scores were then changed so Japan jumped to second place, pushing the British down to bronze. It seemed to deflate the air in the room.
There was a big tree on the top of the one in the stadium. It's not in the that photo, though. I wonder why it was put there for the Olympics.
The tape delay is making it harder to watch. You see the results in the news, which spoils it for when the events are shown at night. Still, I am a big fan of the Olympics. They show sports that I would usually never be interested in. The team archery competition between the U.S. and Italy was really neat, as are most all other events. I was just watching men's volleyball (U.S. vs. Germany) and it reminded me how much I like to watch that sport.
A let down from Beijing, I thought. Did British history jump from fields and grass to industrial revolution, and that's it? They cut out most of the country's history. Also, what's up with celebrating the National Health Service?? Anyway, the skit with the queen was funny, but what I liked the most was the skit with Mr. Bean.
I think they might be able to do it under the more important reason of moving remains to marked graves, rather than unmarked ones. Also, if they are doing renovations to an area (old cemetery or church) they would need to move the remains anyways.I do think that when we hear about these stories in the news media, we are hearing just the sensationalized side of why remains are being dug up.
