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Rio Has Given Up On Clean Water For Olympics (go.com)
iONiUM writes: When bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Jaineiro promised the International Olympics Committee that it would eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water, and would fully regenerate the lagoon in which rowing and kayaking events will be held. Now a few months from the start of the games, Rio has given up on keeping those promises. According to an article from Deadspin, "The U.S. will send 48 rowers to Rio, and they will be as forewarned and forearmed as the federation can make them, starting with squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer that will be distributed on the flight to Brazil. Hannafin says the athletes have been asked to get hepatitis A vaccinations and polio boosters and take the oral typhoid vaccine. Their oar handles will be bleached and their boats washed inside and out after each training session or competition. Gear will be laundered at a high enough temperature to kill microbes."
Kayaking in shit. Brazil. The land of the poor and stupid.
Not in those conditions, it sounds like there are going to be a lot of athletes that end up getting diseases from the water by just being in it. Imagine if one cuts or scrapes themself?
I remember listening to an interview on Mike & Mike (ESPN radio) where they talked to some official try to explain away all of the problems with the Rio water supply and how athletes got sick in a rowing event in the water. The Rio water was fine, she explained and any problems would be rectified. Her doublespeak was so thick that only a complete moron couldn't hear that she was a grade "A" liar.
The reality is the water is so dirty that you might as well swim in raw sewage. Does the Olympic Committee care? Nope. They got their bribes and they are happy.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
It's because they'll give you ****ing Hepatitus! If I knew water rights and environmentalists, I would pass this along to make a big issue for the whole Olympics. Disgusting.
This might be the Olympic Year for countries, big and small, to make a statement to the IOC and the world. It's not just an issue for Rio, but other countries as well. And while it would suck for Olympic Athletes to skip this year, it would draw attention to an issue that even the US faces at home because of greed. Asking for clean drinking water isn't some special request that only the privileged should get, we need to consider it a human right.
The Olympics will only be there for a year, the change that the Olympics can have might have a chance to linger way, way longer. So, just how much is a Gold Medal worth compared to generations of clean drinking water?
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
I agree it's interesting,
Well, there you have it! News for nerds means things nerds find interesintg. It doesn't mean nothing but kernel releases, cool hacks (we've not had nearly enough of these recently) and exploits.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
So Rio says they want to host the Olympics and says everything's fine and everyone just takes their word for it without one single water of pollution or air test? The same with China. Is the IOC that stupid or is this just a corrupt best bribe wins scenario?
And what? Go into the jungle or someone's yard to scavenge for food? The idea of being poor, is that they are just barely striking a balance or trying to, to stop from dying or generally becoming worse off.
If they went walking like you stated, they'd likely end up with more than just muscle pains, considering how filthy the area seems to be.
yaelk/Whipslash, I'm trying really hard not to complain here
How difficult is it to not hit submit? How many of you are in there?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The parts that George Takai (aka Sulu) didn't read...
The origin of the pesticide theory was, surprise surprise, a small physicians’ group that campaigns against pesticides. The group hasn’t done any epidemiology to demonstrate that people exposed to the pesticide are more likely to have babies with microcephaly; it has simply laid out an argument. The mainstream groups, looking at this problem holistically, have said there’s much better evidence that mosquitoes are hurting people than the evidence (and there’s no evidence, really) that the stuff killing mosquitoes is hurting people.
... and...
All of this information is readily available to any genuine scientist looking dispassionately at the potential causes of the Zika virus outbreak or the rise in malformations in Brazil. Also readily available is the knowledge that the use of pyriproxifen is driven by WHO recommendations and not the marketing activity of any multinational or other corporation.
The potential human health consequences of discouraging the use of pyriproxyfen in drinking water storage and other mosquito-reduction programs is catastrophic with potential deaths and serious disease from otherwise avoidable malaria, dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases numbered in at least the hundreds of thousands. If these reports and suggestions are motivated by anything other than ignorance and poor scholarship they are deserving of the most strident condemnation.
Journalists covering this story would do well to research the background of those making and reporting the claims as the underlying story and potential public health consequences may be far more newsworthy than the current headlines.
... and ...
* Neither Monsanto nor our products have any connection to the Zika virus or microcephaly.
* Monsanto does not manufacture or sell Pyriproxyfen.
* Monsanto does not own Sumitomo Chemical Company. However, Sumitomo Chemical Company is one of our business partners in the area of crop protection.
* Glyphosate is not connected in any way to the Zika virus or microcephaly.
* GMOs have no role in the Zika virus or microcephaly.
Should of been Chicago! we have good water and Less crime.
Also good food and beer!!!
I'm so going to get buried by mods who disagree rather than marked informative, but here goes.
I moved to Rio 6 months ago from New Jersey. (Yeah, I know, NJ is the land where every puddle has its own rainbow.) I know 4 other people who moved here from the US within the last 2 years. Not one of us has gotten sick.
How often do you swim in the rivers/lakes there, or do other water sports?
Okay, I'll stop with the anecdotal evidence now. How about, this place is CLEANER than New York City. How many folks swim in the Hudson or the East River?.
Nobody is trying to have an Olympic event in the Hudson or the East River.
Stop playing telephone and ask someone who's been there - Rio is Fine; far cleaner than many other cities I've seen.
Maybe so, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the lakes/rivers are so polluted that you shouldn't be having athletic competitions in them.
All you have provided is individual anecdotes and irrelevant analogies.
The only thing that matters is the actual level of contamination in the affected body of water, as measured by scientific instruments, and an objective risk analysis of pathogenicity based on those measurements. In plain English, your stories about people swimming and fruit dropping from trees means fuck all.
The water was already tested many months ago, and the levels of harmful bacteria and viruses were deemed too high to be safe:
http://espn.go.com/olympics/st...
At that time, some people even suggested that athletes competing in these water events should arrive in Rio early, train in the contaminated environment, get sick with the local diseases, and hopefully build up immunity before the Olympics. That, in my view, is an insane proposition.
...and I'll bet that more athletes will be compromised by the vaccines and the toxic chemicals in the hand "sanitizers" than would get sick from the water...
OK. You almost made it. You were sounding plausible, up until the crack-pot sentence above.
Vaccines—unhealthy—Really?
"Toxic chemicals in the hand 'sanitizers'..."?!? Again—Really? Well, OK, the active ingredient in hand sanitizers is usually ethanol – booze. Yes, that's toxic, but is sold as a casual social lubricant just about everywhere on the planet – for humans' internal consumption. The active ingredient in a few others might be isopropanol – AKA 'rubbing alcohol'. It's more expensive, so less common in 'hand sanitizers', but is what your physician uses to clean the skin before giving you a shot.
FTA: The PR flak's suggestion of hand-sanitizer use on athletes' way to the Olympic Games was quite comical.