o

NDRU said:

Cerebus said:

I burned out on Thursday. I'd been watching about twelve hours a day up to that point and I just couldn't do it anymore. Started only watching certain events (like basketball), or recording large blocks and fastforwarding through all the stuff I didn't want to see. Not sure I really care about the closing ceremonies.

Twelve hours a day of flipping back and forth across multiple channels even. Wasn't very hard to do, really. I don't sleep much.

That was NOT Oasis. That was Beady Eye doing a SHITE version of Wonderwall. Absolutely terrible to the point of insult.

Goodnight London, the rain is back. What a wonderful fortnight xx

The IOC does not recognise any ranking system. Each country chooses (makes up) its' own. This changes occasionally to suit it would seem. Sometimes it's total medals, sometimes total gold. At other times countries have used a weighted system (g=3, s=2, b=1 for instance) and at other times I've heard the total score has been based on medals per capita (or that kinda thing). That obviously takes into account the size of a population. However even that system is flawed as not every country is as wealthy or invests as much in its' athletes. The number of athletes sent is also a factor.

So I think that is why the IOC does not get involved in scoring. It doesn't really seem to be in the spirit of the olympics where the whole ethos should be about taking part and the simple feat of becoming an olympian should be great enough (they are in my eyes).

Also Lenon singing "...no countries"? Well he's singing about borders. I also feel that there should be no borders. The planet is ours to explore and enjoy, whoever decided to build walls needs to be stood against one. The way I see it the Olympic games are an achievement for mankind, for our efforts, for the planet. They should bring people together, people from different regimes, from opposing political opinions, from cultural differences.

Tolerance, love, compassion, understanding, respect and wonder. That is what should be coming out of the games. I know that for myself, my wife and many friends that is what we have witnessed day after day for two glorious weeks. We have felt proud, not only to be Britons (it's hard not to feel it when it's so ingrained), but to be human and part of this wonderful planet.

Cerebus said:

That was NOT Oasis. That was Beady Eye doing a SHITE version of Wonderwall. Absolutely terrible to the point of insult.

oh, it was Beady Eye? I thought it was 06-08 Oasis without Noel

I stand corrected

and Wonderwall sounded good ! terrible'? I thought it was good, moving even

the Spice Girls rocked the house, George bored me to tears, Annie Lennox looked fantastic but there were way too many aerial shots, I wanted to ser her face dammit!

rest of the night :

Cerebus said:

That was NOT Oasis. That was Beady Eye doing a SHITE version of Wonderwall. Absolutely terrible to the point of insult.

It would have been so much better with someone else singing. The music was fine.

Shame he was allowed to sing it.

CLOSING CEREMONY:

Eric Idle - Highlight of the show, Could have done with more Roman troops dancing and more Bigus Dickus...maybe our rowers could have helped...

Still no Coldplay - Honestly, WTF?

No Bowie singing "Heroes" - Fail

Take That - Gary Barlow is a hero for turning up to sing after the week he's had.

Madness, Pet Shop Boys, George Michael, Kate Bush - I love the 80s but most of the athletes weren't around when this stuff came out a and looked bored. And George was clearly there just to plug his new single.

The Who - "Inspire a new generation"....or download pictures of them if you're Pete Townsend. Thanks for ruining one of my favourite bands Pete.

Tinie, Jessie and Taio - Got the crowd going admirably. Brian May solo on "Written In The Stars"?...missed opportunity.

Spice Girls - Looked hot, sounded dire. Watching Victoria Beckham hold on to her taxi for dear life was worth the price of admission

Ed Sheeran - Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters busy then? Loved the high-wire tribute to Wish You Were Here album but it sadly went waaaay over most people's heads.

Kaiser Chiefs - Singing a Who song when the Who were on later? Good one...

Lennon - "Imagine no possessions"...from the stool of your Steinway in your massive mansion; good one John.

Elbow - Was it me or were half the band missing?

Fashion - We also did some fashion stuff...look, here's some skinny folks and some shiny clothes. Pointless.

Queen - God love May and his mad hair but everytime I see them it just reminds me of Freddie's absence

No Sir Paul and Hey Jude - Thank God!! McCartney must be livid though...!

[Edited 8/13/12 5:56am]

DaveT...

I agree with quite a few of your points. It wasn't all bad though and special mention must go to the light display and fireworks. They did look good!

I am also bemused as to why the "greats" weren't there. Bowie, Heroes? Would have been excellent. George's new single? How. Fucking. Boring. Spice Girls a necessary evil perhaps? No Pink Floyd showing was a bit odd. But I'm so glad we had Freddie and the rest of Queen (bar Deacon of course). May is, well he's Brian May for god's sake! Lol

Kate Moss and the Naomi Campbell amongst a few thousand athletes. I'm guessing they weren't drug tested. Fail.

Overall it was a bit bonkers. And that's what is underneath the surface of most Brits. Comes from being so reserved I guess. Did everybody get it? Who cares what they think, this is what we are, love it or loath it.

And it was nice to get some points after countless years of Eurovision. "wink wink"

I have to add an amended medal table because the cheat Ostapchuk got stripped of her Shot Put Gold and it has been awarded to the awesome Valerie Adams of NZ

Rank by Gold	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States of America	46	29	29	104
2	People's Republic of China	38	27	23	88
3	Great Britain	29	17	19	65
4	Russian Federation	24	26	32	82
5	Republic of Korea	13	8	7	28
6	Germany	11	19	14	44
7	France	11	11	12	34
8	Italy	8	9	11	28
9	Hungary	8	4	5	17
10	Australia	7	16	12	35
11	Japan	7	14	17	38
12	Kazakhstan	7	1	5	13
13	Netherlands	6	6	8	20
14	Ukraine	6	5	9	20
15	New Zealand	6	2	5	13
16	Cuba	5	3	6	14
17	Islamic Republic of Iran	4	5	3	12
18	Jamaica	4	4	4	12
19	Czech Republic	4	3	3	10
20	Democratic People's Republic of Korea	4	0	2	6
21	Spain	3	10	4	17
22	Brazil	3	5	9	17
23	South Africa	3	2	1	6
24	Ethiopia	3	1	3	7
25	Croatia	3	1	2	6
26	Belarus	2	5	5	12
27	Romania	2	5	2	9
28	Kenya	2	4	5	11
29	Denmark	2	4	3	9
30	Azerbaijan	2	2	6	10
30	Poland	2	2	6	10
32	Turkey	2	2	1	5
33	Switzerland	2	2	0	4
34	Lithuania	2	1	2	5
35	Norway	2	1	1	4
36	Canada	1	5	12	18
37	Sweden	1	4	3	8
38	Colombia	1	3	4	8
39	Georgia	1	3	3	7
39	Mexico	1	3	3	7
41	Ireland	1	1	3	5
42	Argentina	1	1	2	4
42	Slovenia	1	1	2	4
42	Serbia	1	1	2	4
45	Tunisia	1	1	1	3
46	Dominican Republic	1	1	0	2
47	Trinidad and Tobago	1	0	3	4
47	Uzbekistan	1	0	3	4
49	Latvia	1	0	1	2
50	Algeria	1	0	0	1
50	Bahamas	1	0	0	1
50	Grenada	1	0	0	1
50	Uganda	1	0	0	1
50	Venezuela	1	0	0	1
55	India	0	2	4	6
56	Mongolia	0	2	3	5
57	Thailand	0	2	1	3
58	Egypt	0	2	0	2
59	Slovakia	0	1	3	4
60	Armenia	0	1	2	3
60	Belgium	0	1	2	3
60	Finland	0	1	2	3
63	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
63	Estonia	0	1	1	2
63	Indonesia	0	1	1	2
63	Malaysia	0	1	1	2
63	Puerto Rico	0	1	1	2
63	Taipei (Chinese Taipei)	0	1	1	2
69	Botswana	0	1	0	1
69	Cyprus	0	1	0	1
69	Gabon	0	1	0	1
69	Guatemala	0	1	0	1
69	Montenegro	0	1	0	1
69	Portugal	0	1	0	1
75	Greece	0	0	2	2
75	Republic of Moldova	0	0	2	2
75	Qatar	0	0	2	2
75	Singapore	0	0	2	2
79	Afghanistan	0	0	1	1
79	Bahrain	0	0	1	1
79	Hong Kong, China	0	0	1	1
79	Saudi Arabia	0	0	1	1
79	Kuwait	0	0	1	1
79	Morocco	0	0	1	1
79	Tajikistan	0	0	1	1

London 2012: The women's Olympics?

http://edition.cnn.com/20...index.html

Cerebus said:

o

NDRU said:

Twelve hours a day of flipping back and forth across multiple channels even. Wasn't very hard to do, really. I don't sleep much.

I won't pretend I haven't ever watched 12 hours of TV in a day, but still...

NDRU said:

Cerebus said:

o

Twelve hours a day of flipping back and forth across multiple channels even. Wasn't very hard to do, really. I don't sleep much.

I won't pretend I haven't ever watched 12 hours of TV in a day, but still...

dude it's the Olympics!

it's not like he spent 12 hours watching Jersey Shore or American Idol...

JoeTyler said:

NDRU said:

I won't pretend I haven't ever watched 12 hours of TV in a day, but still...

dude it's the Olympics!

it's not like he spent 12 hours watching Jersey Shore or American Idol...

I don't think Bob Costas even watched that much!

iloveannie said:

DaveT...

I agree with quite a few of your points. It wasn't all bad though and special mention must go to the light display and fireworks. They did look good!

I am also bemused as to why the "greats" weren't there. Bowie, Heroes? Would have been excellent. George's new single? How. Fucking. Boring. Spice Girls a necessary evil perhaps? No Pink Floyd showing was a bit odd. But I'm so glad we had Freddie and the rest of Queen (bar Deacon of course). May is, well he's Brian May for god's sake! Lol

Kate Moss and the Naomi Campbell amongst a few thousand athletes. I'm guessing they weren't drug tested. Fail.

Overall it was a bit bonkers. And that's what is underneath the surface of most Brits. Comes from being so reserved I guess. Did everybody get it? Who cares what they think, this is what we are, love it or loath it.

And it was nice to get some points after countless years of Eurovision. "wink wink"

I agree...by no means bad. The lighting and staging was superb. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd played drums behind Ed Sheeran...just seemed odd, when they could have asked Gilmour and Waters to (now they've buried the hatchet). Good call on Moss and Campbell!

DaveT said:

iloveannie said:

DaveT...

I agree with quite a few of your points. It wasn't all bad though and special mention must go to the light display and fireworks. They did look good!

I am also bemused as to why the "greats" weren't there. Bowie, Heroes? Would have been excellent. George's new single? How. Fucking. Boring. Spice Girls a necessary evil perhaps? No Pink Floyd showing was a bit odd. But I'm so glad we had Freddie and the rest of Queen (bar Deacon of course). May is, well he's Brian May for god's sake! Lol

Kate Moss and the Naomi Campbell amongst a few thousand athletes. I'm guessing they weren't drug tested. Fail.

Overall it was a bit bonkers. And that's what is underneath the surface of most Brits. Comes from being so reserved I guess. Did everybody get it? Who cares what they think, this is what we are, love it or loath it.

And it was nice to get some points after countless years of Eurovision. "wink wink"

I agree...by no means bad. The lighting and staging was superb. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd played drums behind Ed Sheeran...just seemed odd, when they could have asked Gilmour and Waters to (now they've buried the hatchet). Good call on Moss and Campbell!

It's still one of the better closing ceremonies ever. The USA one's tend to look like a love boat musical number. I'm surprised Bowie wasn't there (probably not asked.).

I didn't like the opening ceremony at all-unlike China's very cool unmatchable gold standard opening ceremony.

Like them or not (I'm not a fan of the spice girls) the spice girls did a great job.

I'm sure both kate and naomi both presented their own assistant's pee- :talk2hand:So they passed the drug test.

NDRU said:

JoeTyler said:

dude it's the Olympics!

it's not like he spent 12 hours watching Jersey Shore or American Idol...

I don't think Bob Costas even watched that much!

I enjoyed it quite a bit. Often had friends over for long stretches, too. I watched until I was tired of the games, then I stopped watching. I regularly read for six (or more) hours a day and nobody would ever question that.

JoeTyler said:

Cerebus said:

That was NOT Oasis. That was Beady Eye doing a SHITE version of Wonderwall. Absolutely terrible to the point of insult.

oh, it was Beady Eye? I thought it was 06-08 Oasis without Noel

By definition, that's not Oasis. Noel wrote the lyrics and the music and probably had a hand in the production as well. He's fueding with his brother and his brother did a piss poor, nasally job of singing his song. I found it extremely distasteful. It was a lowpoint of the ceremony for me.

Shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk of Belarus became the first athlete to be stripped of a medal at the London Olympics after her gold was withdrawn Monday for doping.

Valerie Adams of New Zealand was awarded the gold and Evgeniia Kolodko of Russia was bumped up to silver. Fourth-place finisher Gong Lijiao of China was moved up to bronze.

The International Olympic Committee said Ostapchuk tested positive for the steroid metenolone. She won the shot put exactly a week earlier. The IOC said she was tested the day before her competition and again following the event. Both samples were positive.

"The (Olympic committee) of Belarus is ordered to return to the IOC, as soon as possible, the medal, diploma and medallist pin awarded to the athlete in relation to the above-noted event," the IOC said in a statement.

The announcement came hours after the flame was extinguished at the closing ceremony with athletes and officials heading out of London. A day earlier, IOC President Jacques Rogge had proclaimed the fight against doping a success.

The Belarus team had already sent home hammer throwerIvan Tsikhan because of suspicions over a sample provided after his silver-medal performance at the 2004 Athens Games.

Besides Ostapchuk, only one athlete tested positive for a banned substance after competing. U.S. judo fighter Nick Delpopolo was cited for traces of marijuana in his urine sample.

He blamed "inadvertent consumption" of food baked with the substance. The IOC disqualified him from seventh place in the 73-kilogram class.

[EDITED FOR COMPLIANCE]

http://www.usatoday.com/s...57026472/1

NDRU said:

Cerebus said:

o

Twelve hours a day of flipping back and forth across multiple channels even. Wasn't very hard to do, really. I don't sleep much.

I won't pretend I haven't ever watched 12 hours of TV in a day, but still...

Tv is on 24/7 here. You can watch it around the clock. I think the most tv I watched was the week of 9/11. I just watched tv and cried. Was off work, so glued to the tv. Sleep, wake up with the tv still on.

[Edited 8/13/12 23:20pm]

One of the most shameful acts a person can do in my eyes is to cheat at a top sporting event. It's shocking. A life ban should be placed on any athlete caught doing so. And for any athlete not caught but still guilty, well how do you live with yourself knowing everything you've done is a lie?

And as for not doing one's best? Well how do they apply that to football when those fuckers are falling on the floor every five minutes trying it on. They should keep the clock ticking and if found right add the time back on, if not they should either forfeit the time (or face another punishment as the game could be swayed with reduced play time). I mean, just look at the hockey. Blow's to the head, blood running over the pitch and they still come back on bandaged up. Now that's a real sportsperson! Bloody footballers. Politicians, mechanics and football stars... can't trust any of them. Cheating bastards the lot of them.

Liam Gallagher? He's been really nasaly since forming Beady Eye. Annie thinks it's the coke. I think he's had a nose job and gone the same way as Cilla Black. High Flying Birds are the better band but that's due to Noel's songwriting. And he doesn't sing like Cilla. Try it, pinch your nose and sing Wonderwall.

Some things where ok the rest was awful.

Suggs looked like someones drunken uncle and sounded like it. Really does anyone outside the uk and under 30 know even who these people are?

Pet Shop Boys, brilliant loved them. Neil Tennant sound great. they looked great too.

Stomp - Good.

No Bowie performing? The man is musical genius. Hope the rumours or not true.

Kate Bush song and those dancers was a nice bit.

George Michael- yet again looking like someones uncle trying to do moves. The guy is just some cheating druggy pervert. How the fuck was he allowed to perform 2 songs with his crappy new single is beyond me.

No Elton john? wtf? I'm not a big fan of his music but I get him. Hes has moved more people and done a lot, its an unbelieveable he didn't perform while others got centre stage.

Tinie, Jessie and Taio, they were ok. Thought Taio performed well and Jessie has a great voice.

Ed Sheeran- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Spice Girls- Seeing them hanging on to them taxi's for dear life was funny. They havent changed which is good to see!

Queen- Seeing the clip of Freddie was sad. the man was a genius. May and Taylor good.

John Lennon- Seeing the clip was sad.

Muse- Good, a bit pompous but still good. the choir thingy was nice.

Fatboy Slim-hes not had that many hits and took up too much time. they could of fitted in other dance acts with him, like Basement Jaxx and Faithless who have had more recognisable hits and are much more better!

Annie Lennox, why didnt she sing something like Sweet Dreams? her performance was pointless.

Ray Davies- sounded ok. But does anyone under 40 even know who he is?

The Who, jesus yet again looking like someones drunken uncles/grandads and sounding like it. Do people under 40 even know who they are? And isnt Towsend a pervert?

Elbow-Good.

Take That- Robbie's an idiot he should of been there. Don't get it why do the rest of the band even bother with him. Think the excuse was his wife is due a baby, ffs Gary Barlow's baby has just died, he still performed.

Emeli Sande- Good.

Beady eye singing Wonderwall.....Didn't Noel write that? And he allowed Liam to sing it?

For the fashion thing it was cool with me, Naomi Campbell and Jack White's wife Karen Elson where there! hot!

My god, someone who fancies catwalk models! Never thought I'd hear it from a bloke.

Never liked the Pet Shop Boys. I'd need someone there to drag me off if I ever started punching one. One good song but the rest is just CHEER THE FUCK UP YOU MISERABLE CUNTS!!! They grip my shit as you can see.

British house music? Where was it? We had a Second Summer of Love ffs! Fat Boy counts a little but we've done more than just that.

Punk? Kaiser's almost fit as post-punk. I know Blur were playing in Hyde Park. Punk was huge though man. As was Acid House. Didn't see a single smiley. Inflatable octopus was cool though. It'll do

I'd have turned off if Queen hadn't been there. I mean let's face it they are Great Britain!

Iron Maiden would have probably been too much. But Led Zeppelin should have been on stage.

I know you're never gonna get everything in but some things I couldn't help but wonder "why not?"

Muse are great, the modern Queen as far as harmonies go. Prog-rock through and through.

I guess when you look at each act like catpark has done you start to see almost every genre and decade reperesented. Sometimes acts have other commitments so that needs to be taken into account also.

How about The Stranglers though or The Specials in place of Madness? Were they playing Hyde Park aswell though? Never mind. George would have been better off singing Wham Rap to be honest With his white shorts and sandels!

kewlschool said:

DaveT said:

I agree...by no means bad. The lighting and staging was superb. Nick Mason from Pink Floyd played drums behind Ed Sheeran...just seemed odd, when they could have asked Gilmour and Waters to (now they've buried the hatchet). Good call on Moss and Campbell!

It's still one of the better closing ceremonies ever. The USA one's tend to look like a love boat musical number. I'm surprised Bowie wasn't there (probably not asked.).

I didn't like the opening ceremony at all-unlike China's very cool unmatchable gold standard opening ceremony.

Like them or not (I'm not a fan of the spice girls) the spice girls did a great job.

I'm sure both kate and naomi both presented their own assistant's pee- :talk2hand:So they passed the drug test.

We were never gonna compete with China's budget and scale (though I heard some of the sparkle was CGI'd in!!)....but what we managed to show instead was our massive contribution to modern culture, music, art, literature, movies, technology...which when you consider the size of Britain compared to China, USA, etc, we're punching WAY above our weight.

That came across really well. And I hope other countries looked at the ceremony and thought damn, GB have given us ALOT!

DaveT said:

kewlschool said:

It's still one of the better closing ceremonies ever. The USA one's tend to look like a love boat musical number. I'm surprised Bowie wasn't there (probably not asked.).

I didn't like the opening ceremony at all-unlike China's very cool unmatchable gold standard opening ceremony.

Like them or not (I'm not a fan of the spice girls) the spice girls did a great job.

I'm sure both kate and naomi both presented their own assistant's pee- :talk2hand:So they passed the drug test.

We were never gonna compete with China's budget and scale (though I heard some of the sparkle was CGI'd in!!)....but what we managed to show instead was our massive contribution to modern culture, music, art, literature, movies, technology...which when you consider the size of Britain compared to China, USA, etc, we're punching WAY above our weight.

That came across really well. And I hope other countries looked at the ceremony and thought damn, GB have given us ALOT!

GB is known for it's artistic contributions with or without the displays at the olympics. Just saying (Shakespeare anyone?).

Oh, sometimes size does matters.

The closing ceremony was better than any USA ceremony. We can't seem to get the big acts to show up for free-they seem to want big budgets to perform. So, we may get one big artist to show up one day, But probably not as many as GB did.

DaveT said:

kewlschool said:

It's still one of the better closing ceremonies ever. The USA one's tend to look like a love boat musical number. I'm surprised Bowie wasn't there (probably not asked.).

I didn't like the opening ceremony at all-unlike China's very cool unmatchable gold standard opening ceremony.

Like them or not (I'm not a fan of the spice girls) the spice girls did a great job.

I'm sure both kate and naomi both presented their own assistant's pee- :talk2hand:So they passed the drug test.

We were never gonna compete with China's budget and scale (though I heard some of the sparkle was CGI'd in!!)....but what we managed to show instead was our massive contribution to modern culture, music, art, literature, movies, technology...which when you consider the size of Britain compared to China, USA, etc, we're punching WAY above our weight.

That came across really well. And I hope other countries looked at the ceremony and thought damn, GB have given us ALOT!

I don't think so. What time period are you using?

Countries hosting the Olympics always see an increase in medals. Don't expect as many in 2016. The U.S. on the other hand . .. . .

But without King George being an a-hole, we might not have the U.S. of A. For that, I am forever grateful.

SUPRMAN said:

DaveT said:

We were never gonna compete with China's budget and scale (though I heard some of the sparkle was CGI'd in!!)....but what we managed to show instead was our massive contribution to modern culture, music, art, literature, movies, technology...which when you consider the size of Britain compared to China, USA, etc, we're punching WAY above our weight.

That came across really well. And I hope other countries looked at the ceremony and thought damn, GB have given us ALOT!

I don't think so. What time period are you using?

Countries hosting the Olympics always see an increase in medals. Don't expect as many in 2016. The U.S. on the other hand . .. . .

But without King George being an a-hole, we might not have the U.S. of A. For that, I am forever grateful.

Team GB was also much larger than ever before. The amount of medals won per person is about the same as usual.

Lianachan said:

SUPRMAN said:

I don't think so. What time period are you using?

Countries hosting the Olympics always see an increase in medals. Don't expect as many in 2016. The U.S. on the other hand . .. . .

But without King George being an a-hole, we might not have the U.S. of A. For that, I am forever grateful.

Team GB was also much larger than ever before. The amount of medals won per person is about the same as usual.

I think you've both misunderstood what I meant... ...I meant when it comes to modern culture Britain has over achieved over the last century (hence what a good idea it was focusing on that during the opening and closing ceremonies). If you look at what GB has given the world in music, literature, film, art, etc compared to countries of equal size, and even bigger countries, we have punched well above our weight

But if we're talking about how we performed medal wise, yes being at home made a difference, and we probably put more effort in that most other countries. But still being able to out perform the likes of Russia, Australia, Germany, etc who are all bigger and more populated than us...something to be proud of I think