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Net Still Not At Olympics
angkor writes "It's two years later and the net is still largely shut out of the Olympics It seems like we were talking about this in relation to the last Olympics yesterday."
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Well, of course. This is slashdot. We probably were talking about it yesterday.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
.News is getting more generic. For example there is News Blaster, a bot that uses AI to generate news summaries based analysis of stories over several days. It is actually semi decent, and better then at least half the writers out there.
The end result is to devalue local writers and generic content. having something like this for Slash would probably inprove content no end.
This trend has been going on for years, and of cours the IOC is being conservative with broadcasts, since these make up the majority of their income. Why should they give away their bread and butter free?
Personally I would not mind if they made things like this available online a week after the fact. Same thing for other venues, like court trials, etc. Then folks will be able to see it if they want, but there is no conflict with the interests of the broadcasters. Deals could be made.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I live in Salt Lake. As a citizen, I don't mind the world "shitting in my backyard" -- I'm no xenophobe and I welcome diversity. However, as a taxpayer, I've been quite outraged by most of the crap that's gone on these past few of years.
There's too much to bitch about, but my personal favorite was the $450,000 spent to give every bloody city employee an official 2002 Winter Games jacket.
Then there's all the cloak-and-dagger security bullshit going on around here. I work at the Univerity of Utah, and I'm working from home for most of February because it's too damned tough to get to campus! There's 3 black military choppers constantly flying overhead. A guy I work with was accosted by the Secret Service. He's foreign -- looks and sounds foreign -- and made the mistake of biking up to the hill overlooking the stadium to take a few digital snapshots. He was questioned, his pictures were deleted, and he was released.
Meanwhile, all of the on/off ramps into the city are totally un-guarded. Mostly industrial areas, the lots underneath these bridges are perfect places to park large trucks (which is normal anyway) full of explosives. I guess nobody cares about the mere visitors to Salt Lake -- only the corporate sponsors at the venues.
And what's it all for? So Budwiser and Nike can pimp their wares without any trouble. You really think that if this many people gathered for a non-commercial event (a protest perhaps), that they'd enforce a 45-mile radius no-fly zone around the event? No fucking way. This is all about selling stuff, people. I just feel bad for the businesses downtown that are effectly shut down due to the strict security perimeter.
If you want to read some independent local SLC journalism, I encourage you to read the City Weekly: http://www.avenews.com/index.html
Yeah -- I'm bitter. The TV in my house will be off for the month of February. The networks won't be getting my eyeballs (they lost them at Sydney).
Method of processing duck feet
Ever seen footage of how Hitler turned the 1936 Summer Games in Munich into a Nazi three-ring circus? How many of the athletes from foreign nations were forced to acknowledge the Fuhrer with Nazi salutes? Not exactly the Olympic movement's finest hour.
Perhaps you would be happy for the Stars and Stripes to be plastered all over this year's Winter Games, but would you be so happy if China was to push its political agenda just as vigorously when they host the Summer Games in 2008?
No, I didn't think so.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Sure, the IOC is evil. Nike and Bud constantly advertising is evil. There are a lot of things about the way the Olympics are run that is evil.
But, seriously folks... Have some respect here. The Olympics are a wonderful event--and probably the crowning moment of many of the copetitors lives, no matter if the win anything or not.
That fact that thousands of athletes are coming together from a plethora of countries to compete in a fair, civil way is definitely no small feat. Not to mention that the people competeing in the Olymipics, by and large, have trained for most of their life to get there.
Just because they won't allow webcams and the IOC takes bribes, somehow "the Olympics suck"?! Give me a break. Forget about sticking it to "the man" for a moment, and enjoy what is a wonderful event that millions of people worldwide cherish for *the event itself*. Nobody cares about the IOC, or the Nike commercials. I watch the Olympics because of the competition and spirt of the games--that's all.
Of course...since I'm not bitching about something or another, I'm sure I'll get modded down for being "Offtopic" or something. Feh.
-Jayde
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