They brought the Gold home for the second time in a row! May with best digs (and hips) and Walsh, a perfect complement, with great sets and blocks, kicking Chinese ass in pouring rain!
And Congrats to homeboy, Micheal Phelps (he’s from Ball-tee-more, Hun!), for becoming one of the finest Olympians of all time! (even you red state boys can agree with this) Go USA!!!
-Brian
Let’s hear it for all those kids!
Do I hear some faint Aussie smugness? 
Steve Featherkile said:
Let's hear it for all those kids!Do I hear some faint Aussie smugness?
You think we should complain about Phelps running up the price of gold?
Some amazing athletes this year. That Jamacian Lightning Bolt guy is a jaw dropper.
Hope Ryan Hall gets the gold for the Marathon this weekend: He too is a Team World Vision runner. I’m told I’ll meet him the day before the Chicago Marathon, but I don’t expect even to see him on Oct 12. I’ll be way back among the “penguins.”
But but…now I cant watch this anymore…
(http://www.thenewts.net/images/blog/beach_volleyball.jpg)
BTW Mark my words, it will come out in a few years, but Phelps is a MUTANT, he’s had Dolphin DNA spliced into his own 
Vic, you just wish you were the one in the sunglasses…
I really dislike the Olympics. I don’t get anything done. The Beach Volleyball Gals put on one he!! of a show. Congrats to all the athletes. People have to think of how good the ones that came in last are.
Don’t you blokes watch basketball? The USA team is unbelievable!
How about the way the American soccer girls carved up Brasil the other night? Sure, the Brasilian girls had their chances, but the way the US girls kept their cool and stuck to their game plan, start to finish, was a joy to watch.
Of course, if you’re into men’s pole vault, you’ll have to put on your green-and-gold glasses!
Any bloke my age who says he watched the woman’s beach volleyball for love of the sport is automatically suspect, same as the bloke at work who said he liked one of the teams because the girls had great eyes!
Dave Healy said:
Don't you blokes watch basketball? The USA team is unbelievable!How about the way the American soccer girls carved up Brasil the other night? Sure, the Brasilian girls had their chances, but the way the US girls kept their cool and stuck to their game plan, start to finish, was a joy to watch.
Of course, if you’re into men’s pole vault, you’ll have to put on your green-and-gold glasses!
Any bloke my age who says he watched the woman’s beach volleyball for love of the sport is automatically suspect, same as the bloke at work who said he liked one of the teams because the girls had great eyes!
I have seen very little coverage of soccer here and sadly, even less coverage of our guy, Bryan Clay, who won the decathlon. Gone are the days when Bruce Jenner was trumpeted as the Olympic hero on the Wheaties box.
-Brian
Oh, and too much freakin’ diving. Its worse than watching golf on TV.
Brian Donovan said:Have you tried watching the equestrian? I'll bet you'd switch back to the diving! They're keeping THAT, and dumping WOMAN'S SOFTBALL?!! C'mon!!!
Oh, and too much freakin' diving. Its worse than watching golf on TV.
Australia has Olympic coverage on a commercial station and on a public network, and there is very little overlap. The public network shows almost all the soccer. I’m often flicking channels 'til midnite!
So, they are now showing the bronze metal match for women’s indoor volleyball - China v. Cuba and China has this giant Amazon player, Wang YiMei, at 6’3" and 200# (#1 in the pic)
(http://www.womenofchina.cn/Profiles/Sportswomen/images/piciu6655q6.jpg)
(http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0fbr4ONdHXfz9/610x.jpg)
and the color commentator says “she is the horse that China likes to ride”. I let out a belly laugh you could hear down under! :lol: -Brian
I watched the marathon last night. Hall seems to have had an off day. Man, those guys move!
I was talking to Ethan on the phone, he was watching too. “You have to understand, E, He’ll be finishing as I’m starting mile 8.”
I’m amazed that none of athletes dropped dead from the pollution, now that its all over I wonder if we’ll start getting some stories about the real experiences there, not the carefully correographed PR show…
Victor Smith said:Cynic. :lol:
I'm amazed that none of athletes dropped dead from the pollution, now that its all over I wonder if we'll start getting some stories about the real experiences there, not the carefully correographed PR show...
Well I already heard about one US Team track and field athlete complaining that the air pollution was so bad that it severly hurt their performance, of course that could also just be their excuse for partying too much prior in the Olympic Village…
We adopted or daughter from China two years ago, and I can attest that they are not exaggerating the pollution, We spent two days in Bejing and hiked way up a section of the Great Wall, and my lungs were burning in a very odd way and my eyes were watering
(http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/china/top.jpg)
We went all the way from that parking lot you can see way down in the distance. The haze is pollution. All the cities were badly polluted Still I thought china was totally fascinating. People were friendly and needless to say, it’s an incredibly dynamic place That’s not the daughter–that’s a 15 year old boy in an “awkward” phase
mike omalley said:
We adopted or daughter from China two years ago, and I can attest that they are not exaggerating the pollution, We spent two days in Bejing and hiked way up a section of the Great Wall, and my lungs were burning in a very odd way and my eyes were watering.We went all the way from that parking lot you can see way down in the distance. The haze is pollution. All the cities were badly polluted.
Still I thought china was totally fascinating. People were friendly and needless to say, it’s an incredibly dynamic place
I was riding along in Taiwan a few years ago, and saw a solid black stream of exhaust, perhaps 36" or more in diameter, issuing forth from a large tin shed-like building. My host proudly announced that the company located there was making cast iron barbecue grills, like the hibachis that are sold in U.S. discount stores for ~$10. My only thought at that moment was ‘better there than in my backyard!’
The same situation exists in Mexico, where it is still allowed to dump industrial waste materials out the back door. And if there is a waterway available, so much the better, as the stuff appears to get washed away, becoming someone else’s poblem. I don’t think there is an industrial chrome plating shop left in Northern California. We now send parts that need plating to Mexico, where they are willing to live with the pollution.
Of course, these situations will come around to bite all of us. One thing that becomes obvious is the damage these countries are doing to their own environment, the world’s environment, and the health of their citizens in the pursuit of industrial development. This kind of uncontrolled pollution will undoubtedly force reforms in the near future. With those reforms will come increased costs, and with their increased costs, the price for our goods will increase. Enjoy your low cost barbecue while it’s still available!
Same thing with the Chinese workers’ demands for living accommodations, home goods and transportation more along the lines of those that developed western societies enjoy. Their government will only be able to hold the line so long, then they will be forced to accommodate the wishes of the masses, or they will be replaced with a government that will. Due to the strong indoctrination of the current generations, it might take longer in China, but just look at S. Korea for a model. The labor strikes in their industrial (mostly electronic) plants during the late 1980s and early 1990s really set the whole country on a new course, with an attendant increase in the costs of doing business there.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
You are absolutely right, although that’s not the only side of Chinese manufacturing. I bought a bass violin from a chinese maker, Shen (http://www.cscproducts.com/), but before I bought it I had a long exchange with their US rep about working conditions in the factory in China. He kept saying how astonished he was not just by the work ethic of the individual Chinese, but by their determination to innovate and their ability to work quickly. He said they shipped them a duplicarver, for making the tops of the basses–the top of a bass is about 5 ftx3 ft, two huge wedges of spruce center joined and then carved into a complex arch. The chinese workers rejected the duplicarver because they felt they could do it faster and better by hand, with a mallet and a chisel and some gouges. He said there was a guy whose job was to cut the “f” holes in violins, and he used a saw he had made himself out of bamboo and piano wire.
It’s a country I don’t even pretend to understand
mike omalley said:Chuckle! We went through a period when I swore one of ours was the outcome of parthenogenesis!
That's not the daughter--that's a 15 year old boy in an "awkward" phase
