Slashdot Mirror
How Russia Transformed a Subtropical Beach Resort To Host the Winter Olympics
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Duncan Geere reports at The Verge that Russian resort as Sochi, on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, is humid and subtropical with temperatures averaging about 52 degrees Fahrenheit (12 C) in the winter, and 75 degrees (24 C) in the summer. "There is almost no snow here — at the moment it's raining," says Olga Mironova, a local resident. It's estimated that the cost of staging the Olympics in Sochi has been greater than the previous three Winter Games combined — ballooning to a whopping $51 billion including the cost of implementing an extensive system of safeguards to ensure there'll be sufficient snow in Sochi for the games including the cost of implementing one of the largest snowmaking systems in Europe. The system includes two huge water reservoirs that feed 400 snow cannons installed along the slopes that can generate snow in temperatures of up to 60 degrees fahrenheit (16 C). If that snow isn't enough, then the authorities will fall back on 710,000 cubic meters of snow collected during the winters of previous years leading up to the games. To keep it from melting in the region's hot summers, 10 separate stockpiles have been kept packed tight under insulating covers high up in the mountains, safe from the sun's rays. Down in Sochi itself the other half of the games will be held in five indoor arenas that will host figure skating, speed skating, hockey, and curling, and an additional outdoor area will host the opening and closing ceremonies. In each of these indoor arenas, underfloor cooling systems are installed so that the ice stays frozen above it using propylene glycol, which doesn't freeze until temperatures reach 8.6 F (-13 C). Climatologists predict that even under a best-case scenario, almost half the venues that have hosted the Winter Olympics over the last century would be unable to do so by 2080 without resorting to extensive and expensive artificial snowmaking techniques.""
How do warmists explain that in my air conditioned house, temperature never goes above 70 farhenheit? AGW doesn't exist. What exists is AIC (anthopological indoor cooling).
Sort out your units, or you lose the right to use any of them.
Taking a semi-tropical place and turning it into an expensive, barely working winter wonderland is a very stupid idea. Implementing it is even stupider.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
But 43.5 degrees C is!
Not to nention that Sochi is characterised by poverty, separatism, terrorism and mass beach tourism:
http://www.thesochiproject.org...
Pete Boyd
Did Obama do something last night that we need to be distracted about. Usually don't pull out the Bush did it card til we need to distract from his actions.
It would even be clearer to most people here if you did it in kelvins rather than Fahrenheit.
Its down to the monumental institutionalised corruption in Russia where everyone from the highest level apparatchik down to the brick layer is on the take.
These games are also a show of the absolutely incredible depth of corruption in Russia. The initial budget of $12 billion has ballooned to over four times to some $50 billion – the most expensive winter or summer Olympics in the history. The 45-kilometre road from Sochi to the outdoor venues alone cost $8 billion, enough to pave the finished road with 5-millimetre thick gold. It was a common arrangement in the Olympic construction projects to use the money as follows: 30% for the actual construction work, 35% to the officials and 35% to the "oligarchs" who oversaw the project. And let's not forget how the Sochi locals who happened to live near the coming Olympic venues have been brutally forced on the streets without any compensation for their expropriated property, thanks to a special law that Putin had passed in Duma. You should see the documentary Putin's Games for some background on the mind-boggling amounts of corruption in these games.
43.5 degrees N (more northerly than Buffalo, NY) is not "subtropical."
The word "subtropics" refers to a particular location. The word "subtropical" can refer to any area that has characteristics similar to the subtropics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_locations_with_a_subtropical_climate
Hey lookie there: Eurasia -> Russia -> Sochi
Ok. I'm frankly sick and tired of all this media campaign of discrediting the Russian olympic games. I mean, this article is completely ridiculous.
As a comparison, the weather in Sochi is similar to the one in Grenoble (at least from a temperature point of view). Now, the thing is that I live in Grenoble, which was also the location of the olympic games in the 60's. Like in Sochi, right now it is raining in Grenoble, and the temperatures are around 10 degrees Celsius. Despite this, just yesterday I went skiing at the resort which hosted the downhill event in the 60's and guess what? Perfect skiing conditions, all slopes were open and no artificial snow has been used in the last 4 weeks. How is this possible? Well, most of the events at the winter olympic games are hosted in the mountains, which in the case of Grenoble are 2000 meters above the level of the city. I don't know about Sochi but the Caucas mountains have peaks of over 5000 meters.
Just comparing the temperatures in the biggest city which happens to be located near the actual mountains which host the games is completely stupid!
Now, doesn't the lack of shower curtains and door knobs seem a bit pedantic?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
That Q&A is a hard fact that except for some drift it comes so close to what is reality, We were driven to near austerity in the 80s with the this mentality. Here we were in the 2000s and nearly achieved it the second time around in that same geographical area. History is being denied just as AGW is now being denied. It's time to stop living the American dream which for most has been a nightmare and start living the American Reality. We have to address global warming with the same attitude as a Soviet invasion would have been that never came to be. A few more questions . ...
Q. How come we can't watch the Olympics?
A. Because we don't have a cable provider and our video stream is not a sponsor of the NBC networks.
Q. But I thought the Olympics were for everyone including so we could support our team?
A. They are but the sponsoring is now controlled by greedy networks that are run by exclusive clubs owned by the elite.
Q. Do the elite believe in AGW?
A.
I guess they couldn't find a colder place in such a tiny territory
Yes, it's time to give up! http://imgur.com/3ZidINK and to use the metric system also : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
American website reporting largely to Americans is going to use American measures.
You want to report in Celsius, start your own?
Anyway, people who want a genuinely objective temperature scale use Kelvin.
-Styopa
This is the comment I am forced to type.
Yeah, making snow in Russia... Only in Russia... The cost of Olympic games is more than $50 Billion, or approximately $500 per Russian citizen, that is including babies and retired people. Had most of Russians been asked whether they agree to donate $500 per person they would have told "No". So they blew $50 billion... That is not entirely correct since this $50 billion has transformed to the salaries of the workers, organizers and security, cost of construction materials and the profits for organizers. So it is not all gone to waste. However Olympic games has always been a classic and favorite way of spreading the wealth... upwards. in 50 years we will hear about Russia's summer Olympic games in Arctic pole.
While the indoor activities may well be in the City of Sochi, the activities which actually requires a large amount of snow (alpine and nordic) are actually arranged in Rosa Khutor, which may only be 50 km away, but happens to be approximately 1000 meters above sea level, something which does have an impact on the climate.
There may be lots of things wrong with these Olympics, but there is no need to exaggerate.
For the benefit of people who using non-murican units:
52 degrees F = 12 C (approx)
75 degrees F = 25 C (approx)
Never mind their actual latitude, from spending most of my life within 5 degrees of the tropics, about the only time we see 75 degrees in summer is in the middle of a heavy thunderstorm. Even the lows are more likely to be in the 80s (25-30 C) during summer months.
Right up until the end when GLOBAL WARMING.
The Metric Conversion Act would disagree with you.
Actually, "subtropical" is a description of climate, not of place on the map. And from a climate point of view, Sochi is subtropical. Yes, Sochi might lie more north than Buffalo, NY. But still, it's warmer the whole year than Buffalo, NY. Rome is north of New York City. Palermo, Sicily is about as north as Baltimore. But Sicily is definitely subtropical.
The Greater Caucasus Mountains where the Olympics are being held receive as much snowfall as any major ski resort in the US. It's just a bad year for them...sort of like Vancouver 4 years ago. I really don't understand the "subtropical" knock that everyone keeps repeating. This is a huge mountain range that gets tons of snow every year. Not considering climate change, the facilities they've built in the mountains will probably serve as a very nice ski resort after the olympics...
No it doesnt. This is not trade and commerce, or I would agree with you.
When you cant win, ad hominem.
Yes but in such a system, woe be to the local bureaucrat who fucks up Dear Leader's I 'r Sewious plans just to line his pockets.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
In Soviet Russia We Host You!
Common sense I do have.
Obviously. You have so much of it, that you can completely disregard obvious facts. That must be convenient.
WTF does this have to do with the original article?
It has a lot to do with the original article, which is unfortunately somewhat off track. The subject tackled are the important investments to ensure proper conditions for the winter competition. Sadly the article and the title used by slashdot are missleading, as they suggest these investements are made to transform a sub-tropical climate into a winter paradise. What so many people fail to understand is that the climate up in the mountains IS NOT the same as the one near the sea in the city of Sochi.
So what does it have to do with it? A lot.
What the poster of this article understood but you - and most likely the journalist behind the article - failed to understand is that the a large part of the investments are made to ensure that the proper conditions are met in the competition sites in the mountains (not in the sub-tropical paradise, mind you). The risk of having non-adequate conditions, and thus require the equipement and huge investment behind it - is obviously linked to the climate.
I do not believe Sochi - and the sites in the mountains in the direct neighbourhood - could ever garantee the right conditions, regardless of the outcome of the winter. Hence the large investements. The interesting catch is that many of the past Winter Olympic sites, which could garantee for those conditions, fall in the same category as Sochi due to climate change. This means that these sites would also need similar investments to hold such competition in the future.
But stick to your common sense, widely feed by ignorance and closed mindset.
Have you a better source than the daily mail for that one?
The 0-100 degreen range of Farenheit better represents the range of temperatures that humans encounter. http://imgur.com/gallery/ucOQh
reporting largely to Americans
Are you sure about that?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
2080? heh. Reminds me of Disraeli saying (and I am paraphrasing) that politicians enjoy a the privilege heretofore only afforded to whores - power without responsibility. I guess climatologists, too, now. Making predictions not verifiable until after their retirement? Check.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
by 2080, we shall live in a 3D printed paradise as our children fly back and forth between the local galaxies in exotic-matter powered warp drives. Surely by 2080 the Makerbots will have snow cartridges in them?
As Slashdot is offering paying subscriptions and is geting money from the advertisers, IT IS commerce - a commecial web site.
Can someone please find where we can file a complaint against Dice Holdings for failing to follow U.S. Executive Order 12770 ?
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
Weather? Farenheit
No. Weather? Metric.
'Zero degrees? Uh oh, looks like it might snow.'
'It's FORTY-FIVE degrees in Las Vegas? Holy cow! That's nearly half-way to boiling!'
It's probably hard for people in other countries to understand, but the Metric Conversion Act merely indicated that the metric system was the PREFERRED system, not the "required" system.
Further, Executive Order 12770 is relevant only to government agencies.
This was back when the US government had fewer abilities to simply order its citizens (you know, the ones laughably in charge?) to do what it wants on a whim.
-Styopa
Celsius merely replaces one set of 'arbitrary' reference points (human warmest/typical =100 and coldest/typical = 0) with another (the freezing/boiling points of a hypothetically-pure water in a specific set of pressure circumstances = 0/100 respectively).
Aside from that, it's what people grew up & are comfortable with.
Well, the only other difference is that I don't see Americans being evangelical about trying to convince anyone to use their system. (Shrug)
-Styopa
You can easily divide a foot, for example, into thirds, halves, quarters. Not so much with base 10.
If you can't easily divide the number ten into two equal halves, then perhaps you have bigger problems than just which set of units to use.
Alexa says /. is 37% Indian-origin, 27% US - I find that hard to believe, given the amount of time they spend on bullshit US political issues. Their total % only reaches about 70-some percent.
-Styopa
Aside from that, it's what people grew up & are comfortable with.
I'm people, I didn't grow up with it and I'm not comfortable with it.
All that being said, there are a lot of things that are bananas in the USA compared to the rest of the world. Use of the Fahrenheit system is *way* down the list of crazy to the point where it's almost a rounding error.
Allow me to divide one meter by the amounts you mentioned:
3 - 0,333mm (use as much precision as you'd like)
2 - 0,500mm
4 - 0,250mm
Now, allow me to do something you can't do trivially with imperial units:
How many centimeters does a kilometer have?
1km = 1000m = 100.000cm
Try doing that under 5 seconds with imperial units.
You only insult yourself by using such stupid arguments. SI is better.
All systems of measurements are based on arbitrary references.
The difference is that SI is a coherent system of base and derived units with very simple relationships between them, all based on the number 10 and a series of greek prefixes.
Nobody ever asks themselves (*kids still learning the basics excepted) how many meters are in a kilometer. Knowing that, nobody is going to be left wondering how many grams there are in a kilogram or how many newtons in a kilonewton. The keyword is coherency.
SI is coherent within itself and with the numerical system used by nearly everyone on this planet (base 10). Imperial units are neither.
Also, SI is used in all but three countries. Don't you think those three countries might have done things wrong?
Last I checked, the US do not represent a majority of the world's population (the other two countries who do not use SI do not alter this significantly and are essentially irrelevant in industrial terms). Therefore, a majority of the world's population uses SI units (and thus degrees Celsius and Kelvin).
Your reluctance to accept SI is baffling, moronic even.
I hate to break it to you, but Farenheit was NEVER an American...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit
/. zen: Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Beowulf clusters...
it's fucking ridiculous. with 51 billion dollars you could have hosted the games in Helsinki, BUILT THE FUCKING MOUNTAIN for the slope needing competitions and still have the hotels ready in time.
but you want to know the really funny thing? Sochi has more gay clubs than Helsinki.
it's not one or two guys who got killed over the Sochi contracts either. that's why foreign companies didn't touch the bidding for contracts... and why the companies really didn't think that they would be penalized on payments if they fail to deliver on time properly.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
The easy division is a little advantage when you have to learn hard silly numbers like how many yards in a mile? And I don't ask you to calculate surfaces and volumes based on lengths :(
When I see the mess it is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...
Temperatures are usually reported in degrees Celsius. Please fix this.
Not going to happen when the poster is American and temperatures are in the range of 0 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The extremes demanding extra care and protection, but nothing particularly expensive or exotic.
100 Heat Wave
75 Summer
50 Autumn and Spring
25 Winter
0 Deep Winter
calculate it . stop being lazy
PC Gaming enthousiast that gives comments, opinions and reviews on Games. I'm just having fun with games while doing let
The quote down the bottom for me was something along the lines of "one of the great mercies of the human brain is its inability to compare its contents."
Is 1563649 a prime number?
You can easily divide a foot, for example, into thirds, halves, quarters. Not so much with base 10.
You're right! It's much easier to divide 1"1/16 into thirds than it is to divide 27mm into thirds (they're the same length to a good approximation).
And if you're going to complain about me cherry-picking silly values, I'll point to the 2400mm sizes that wood is sold in which is every bit as dividisible as imperial units since it's a multiple of 12.
mass, etc came about in the same way.
Ah yes. 16 oz to the pound, 14 pounds to the stone, 8 stone to the cwt, 20 cwt to the ton. That's long tons of course, not short ones. But you guys seem to have abandoned stones and hundredweights, leaving the ton as a nice, tractable 2240lb. That's a lovely number to do mental arithmetic with.
Er, or are you working with short tons, where it's 100lb to the short hundredweight and 20 of them to the short ton.
etc
And what about volume? Do you work in cu Ft or gallons? That's a conversion factor of 6.22883288. Real easy to use. Quick: anser in two seconds or less: how many cubic inches to the cubic foot?
Come on it's only 12x12x12. Which is uhh 144*12 which is er 1440+288... 162.. er 172... er 1728! got it! Did that really take you under 2 seconds?
Oh yeah and BTUs. Heater at 220V, 2A is how many BTU/hr again? I have no fucking clue. Seriously. Not a clue. Not even slightly. Now try some more complex conversions like figuring out how long it would take to heat up a room's worth of air by one degree. Or if you prefer, some container of water.
Or it it takes a turning force of 0.1 foot pounds to turn (er or is that about an inch pound or a foot ounce???) a shaft on a bearing, how much heat must the bearing be able to dissipate at 100RPM?
See, all these calculations are really REALLY hard with imperial. The famed divisibility only helps if you happen to be working with whole feet. For everything else (mass, energy, force) and calculations involving unit conversions, it's a massive PITA.
Nature isn't base 10, other than the number of fingers and toes we have.
It's not base 2, 3, 4, 12 or anything else, either.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
It sounds very much like Stalin-style mass industrialism where massive resources are thrown at something to accomplish it. Usually it's done regardless of cost and almost seems to be done to demonstrate ability and capability more than the intrinsic value of what's being done.
You mean sounds like the space program?
If you can't easily divide the number ten into two equal halves, then perhaps you have bigger problems than just which set of units to use.
GP never said it couldn't be... you're deliberately missing the obvious point that 12 can be divided into by thirds and quarters with integer results while 10 cannot.
A base 10 unit system is better because (and only because) base 10 is our primary number system. A meter is better than a foot because (and only because) it is the more popular international standard. We could scale Imperial unis with base-10 SI prefixes if we wanted to, and some people do.
I would tend to argue that Imperial units tend to be more natural since things like inches, feet, tablespoons, teaspoons, gallons, and miles came out of practical usage rather than a top-down choice of a base unit standard and subsequent base-10 scaling by SI prefixes. But I also readily admit that I may be wrong and merely biased since I grew up with Imperial units.
Temperatures are usually reported in degrees Celsius. Please fix this.
This is slashdot... Write a grease monkey script to convert all imperial units to metric, and publish it! Or, in the words of foss, fix it yourself!
Yeah, in a proper capitalist institution, only the highest level is supposed to be on the take.
With Russia having the mountain ranges and abundant amounts of cold and snow in other regions, why host the games here? I think this is just Putin waving his dick about.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
you're deliberately missing the obvious point that 12 can be divided into by thirds and quarters with integer results while 10 cannot.
And 12 cannot be divided into fifths. So what?
A base 10 unit system is better because (and only because) base 10 is our primary number system.
You say that like it is a minor thing. Why would you not want your measurement system to have some some relevance to your number system?
I would tend to argue that Imperial units tend to be more natural...
The inch was originally the length of a barleycorn. Please explain what possible relevance that has to our modern society?
Not to nention that Sochi is characterised by poverty, separatism, terrorism and mass beach tourism
So when poor beach tourists start advocating a violent separation from Russia, we should be concerned?
Celsius merely replaces one set of 'arbitrary' reference points with another...
No, what it does is get (almost) everyone in the world using a single consistent measurement system so that we can communicate effectively and save a lot of money by not having to maintain extra unnecessary tools and instruments and documentation and conversion charts. It means I can go anywhere in the world (except the US) and know what temperature is being referred to without doing math.
Aside from that, it's what people grew up & are comfortable with.
No. The main benefit is that 95% of the world uses it. The fact that you grew up with something else does not make it a good idea to use that something else out here in the real world. Standard measurement systems are a Good Thing.
It really depends what you're using said units for.
Generally speaking it really doesn't. The advantages of using something you are familiar with are VASTLY outweighed by the advantages of having to only maintain one system and one set of tools and one set of gauges and one set of documentation and one set of instruments and the fact that you can communicate with others without using any conversion charts with their inevitable errors. You prefer cups over liters because you are used to it, not because it is more effective.
The 0-100 degreen range of Farenheit better represents the range of temperatures that humans encounter.
It is exactly the same unless you have some integer fetish. The only difference is the number used. If you need sub-integer precision with Celsius then, gasp, use a decimal. It's not hard to say 21.2 degrees.
I hate to break it to you, but Farenheit was NEVER an American...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Gabriel_Fahrenheit
You do realize that there's a difference between unit systems used in the USA and unit systems invented by Americans (assuming that there are any)?
The original complaints were coming from people in countries where neither of the above applied and was merely a courtesy conversion for them.
Regardless of what units you use, however, the temperature spreads listed for Sochi don't match for sub-tropical America anywhere near sea level. And when you go to Orlando, don't expect to ski on Space Mountain.
0-100 allows for finer granularity of temperature representation without resorting to fractions or decimals, which, while simple enough, are more cumbersome than integers for the average person to deal with.
Only if you have an integer fetish. Furthermore, somehow 95% of the world somehow seems to exist just fine without Fahrenheit so the integer granularity advantage you are touting seems to be of dubious value. You also seem to be discounting the benefit of being able to communicate with 95% of the world without using a conversion chart.
There are many parts of the USA where the "Deep Winter" is more like -40. So your overall range is roughly either -40-100 in F or -40-38 in C.
You don't seem to appreciate what Sochi was and what it has become now. Yes, some money got stolen, so what? This is Russia.
However, do you think it's easy to build all the infrastructure from effectively scratch? It's relatively easy to hold Olympic games a places like Vancouver or London. Those cities got the best airports in the worlds, hotels, much of sports venues, and public transport infrastructure. Sochi had none of that. In the early 90s this was a crumbling summer resort that even Russians refused to visit. This place was basically a giant village and a dump. Now it has modern highways, airports, light rail, hotels, and sports venues. And now that all of those facilities are there, Russians and other tourists are going to use those facilities because the Sochi area is a spectacular location for vacations.
It's not ridiculous. It would have been cheaper to go to Helsinki, but Helsinki already has some transport infrastructure, probably some hotels, and some sports venues. For Zeus's sake, it's the capital of a country. Sochi had none of that. The old Soviet infrastructure that hasn't been maintained for 20 years, had to be torn down the rebuilt again. Airports, hotels, highways, light rail, etc, no to mention the sports venues. Sochi had zero previous sports infrastructure. Yes, a lot of the money got stolen, but holding such games in Sochi instead of say Moscow, has a huge investment potential because it's a great destination and people will visit after the Olympics again. Moscow is already a great city and doesn't need a spending boost from the Olympics.
There is no separatism in Sochi. Sochi is in Krasnodar region of Russia, which is predominantly Russian populated. I think you're confusing Sochi with the neighboring predominantly Muslim populated russian republics such as Chechnya and Dagestan.
For length, at least, our system is more natural. [...] Nature isn't base 10, other than the number of fingers and toes we have.
Yes, excellent point. I propose that we immediately abandon base 10 and start using base pi.
So why use a decimal system for currency? Indeed, until the year 2001 US stock market operated in fractions: two and a half dollars, twelve and 17/32, etc. By your reasoning, fractions are such a wonderful notion that they should never have changed.
Who made that list though?
...is a pain, and not at all uncommon. Frankly, I do see advantages to using a base-12 measuring system, but sometimes metric makes more sense.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
And when was the last time Joe Sixpack or Suzie Homemaker ever did any calculations like these?
Physics and engineering students might care about these things, but regular people don't.
Don't know what you are talking about. To me bananas in the US look the same as bananas in Europe.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
Converting between volume and mass is an everyday thing. Cooking would be one example, and there are plenty others.
Farenheit, which is scaled such as a degree is a noticable difference but no more
I see this claim every time the topic is brought up, but it's absurd. It's barely possible to notice the difference of 1 degree Celcius in weather temperature, and you're claiming that half that is noticeable?
As far as weather goes, wind and humidity affect perceived temperature significantly more than a one-degree difference on either scale, anyway.
OTOH, if you live in an area where it does get below freezing, that freezing point is a very important thing that makes a pronounced difference in conditions outside, so it makes perfect sense to center the scale around it.
American politics is sufficiently entertaining and far-reaching that a lot of people who have never even been to US have a strong opinion on it.
I would imagine that the write-up that is quoted in the comment above is from 2003-4 or thereabouts. You're welcome to extend it with modern realities if you'd like (note how it covers more than just Bush era).
It's funny that you should bring up Skolkovo, given how the main innovation that it produced so far is the means of funneling away the budget in highly efficient ways. Seriously, Skolkovo is entrenched as one of the symbols of government corruption of the Putin era (the Olympics will probably be that, as well, but at least they have something to show for it, unlike Skolkovo).
Islamists in those republics lay claim to the entire southern Russia, claiming that it is historically Muslim territories occupied by infidels - and, as such, Dar al-Harb.
Only if he does not get away in time.
Yes, a lot of the money got stolen, but holding such games in Sochi instead of say Moscow, has a huge investment potential because it's a great destination and people will visit after the Olympics again.
Actually, they won't, which is why several Olympic venues were intentionally constructed in such a way that they can be deconstructed later and moved to some other part of the country where they're actually useful on a more permanent basis (do you really think that the expensive snow producing will be kept on after the Olympics?). The other problem is the shoddy quality of a lot of what was built, because of endemic corruption and a rush to complete it on time.
You could also say that it was a worthwhile state project because it put money in the pockets of all those workers that built the infrastructure, but the majority of them were immigrants from other countries...
So, literally, these Olympics do nothing positive for Russian economy. The money that's spent on it is partly wasted on infrastructure that's going to be unused after the Olympics, partly left the country in the pockets of migrant labor, and partly left the country after being pocketed by the corrupt builders and stashed away in their Swiss accounts.
Well, any crazy "separatist" from any region of the world could lay a claim on some piece of land where there is almost no one of their kind is living right now. And the linked map is a product of a sick imagination that can exist only inside of an Islamist mind. It's like Al Qaeda still crying over the lost muslim land in Spain. This doesn't really mean anything. Separatism is when people living on the land want to become separate. For example, you can say there exist separatism in Catalonia region of Spain. But in Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, where Sochi belongs, the population is over five million but only 1% are Muslim.
All venues and hotels will not be disassebled and moved. I heard a story of one stadium or so, not a big deal. The ski resort will remain, most of the Olympic village will remain (and will host the Formula 1 race), the hotels will remain, the airport, light rail, and other infrastructure will remain. When the Soviet Union existed, the Black Sea coast was the number one summer vacation destination for the Russians, and I don't see a reason why tourism won't pick up again with new infrastructure and also huge instability in places like Egypt and rest of North Africa (a lot of Russians like to take summer vacations there).
Celsius merely replaces one set of 'arbitrary' reference points (human warmest/typical =100 and coldest/typical = 0) with another (the freezing/boiling points of a hypothetically-pure water in a specific set of pressure circumstances = 0/100 respectively).
The Celsius point of reference is replicable, non subjective and does not change.
It may have been chosen, but it's not arbitrary. Two numbers weren't just plucked out of thin air, Celsius is based on a logical measurement.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
But 43.5 degrees C is!
43.5 Degrees is pushing into arid territory. Your tropical zones are around 15-35. 43 is Australia or Dubai weather.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
All venues and hotels will not be disassebled and moved. I heard a story of one stadium or so, not a big deal.
At least three venues will be disassembled: the "Iceberg" winter sports palace (built for figure skating and short track skating), the "Ice cube" curling center, and the "Small ice arena" for hockey.
The ski resort will remain, most of the Olympic village will remain (and will host the Formula 1 race), the hotels will remain, the airport, light rail, and other infrastructure will remain
That's actually part of the problem. A lot of that infrastructure is designed solely for Olympics, and will not ever again see the number of users that would justify the maintenance costs. It's not like, say, the monorail they've built in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics - that one was also expensive, but it remains in service because it is actually useful day to day to route traffic between Richmond, Vancouver and the airport. Who is going to need the huge Adler - Krasnaya Polyana road after the Olympic crowds go away? How much will it cost to maintain, given that it cost $200 million per km to build?
The people who previously went to Egypt will go to Turkey instead. It's not like the Olympic infrastructure build-up will solve the two primary existing reasons for why Russians prefer to go abroad for vacations: crappy service at exorbitant prices. If anything, the prices will only get even higher now with all that infrastructure to maintain...
Yes, "separatism" is not a precise description for what these guys up to, and hasn't been for a while, but it's the one that got stuck.
FWIW, the difference between Caucasian jihadists and al-Qaeda crying about Spain is that Spain hasn't been Muslim for many centuries now, while the last time large portions of Caucasus were self-governed as an Islamic emirate was during Shamil's rebellion 140 years ago. As for the coastline, of which Sochi is a part, it was Circassian until they were ethnically cleansed in roughly the same time period. So, while history, it's not exactly ancient history.
Also, when counting the Muslim persentage in Kradnodar krai, you have to include Adygea to get a meaningful count (since it is, essentially, an artificially segregated enclave of Muslim Circasians inside the krai). So it's closer to 2%.
Actually, nature is base 2. Not that this would in any way justify imperial units.
2% still quite a meaningless number, even with Adygea included, and then you have to find out how many of them are actual separatists. For all I know, the map posted above has been drawn by foreign-funded and foreign dominated Wahhabi jihadists who are predominantly based outside of Krasndar Krai, and do not even represent well the people of the Muslim republics of North Caucasus, many of whom have always been adherents of more moderate Sufi islam. The Jihadists's map even includes the territory of North Ossetia, majority Christian and one of the most pro-Russian republics in the Caucasus region. This just shows the ridiculousness of the jihadist's claims and appetites.
I wouldn't call Adygea's creation by a harsh term of "artificial segregation". The Adygea republic and many others were created by Communists many years after Russian conquest of Caucasus, with the good intention to give all the ethnic minorities at least some kind of autonomy. Without Adygea, the local Circassians wouldn't have had any political power with such small population. Of course, later Stalin, and some subsequent rulers, including Putin, made a complete mockery of the idea of the Russian "Federation". However, the original intention to create republics for local ethnicities was not a bad one, and it wasn't a "reservation".
some games. I understand it's a time to leisurely have fun but how much time and money before enough is enough?
Turkey isn't exactly stable either.
Well it looks to me like it has both. All the changes thet were implemented in schools happened the year after I either left, or were implemented inmy grade the year aftert I graguatef to the next one, such as switching to metric, or adding a music course or changing the curriculum (OK there I lucked out), or adding sport such as track and field to the grade I just left. So I missed a lot, and still have to convert celsius to fahrenheit to be able to visualise the temp. That includes a whopping 30% of the populationm, I do believe, who were raised Fahrenheit..
The instability in Turkey does not translate to hassling tourists, though.
This is older than Stalin. Peter the Great built St. Petersburg in the middle of a swamp and made it the capital.
So have they been using the fake snow that the illuminati and tin hatters are complaining about on YouTube? The stuff that won't burn, and turns black when you try to light it? Laid down by Chemtrails, etc. ?
Shoot, they didn't have to do that. I have enough in my driveway to make a decent ski jump. Just come and get it.
.. and I use metric because, well, it is easier for me now that I used European developed prepress and printing systems. That daung Adobe PostScript with its points messed me up a little back in the 80s, but eventually I was less an idiot than I am now. It is learn-able and logical.
Right! finally someone with a bit of common sense.
Screw Fahrenheit and Celsius!
-- 29A the number of the Beast
Fahrenheit makes no sense at all, Celsius uses the standards of when water boils and freezes for 100 and zero, and Kelvin is Celsius with the zero point moved such that there are no negative values.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)