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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.]
Shit Lagoon Rowing Competition! Who will get the gold!
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
The Index of Economic Freedom says:
"Brazil's limited experiment with market-oriented reforms has been uneven and even derailed in some areas. The state's presence in such sectors as energy, financial services, and electricity remains extensive. The legacy of decades of central planning, state meddling in economic activity continues even where it has demonstrably failed, and the weak rule of law further undermines economic progress."
"Graft remains endemic, and Brazilians disapprove of President Dilma Rousseff's policies on corruption and crime. In 2014, a former director of state-owned Petrobas accused more than 40 politicians, including one minister and three governors, in a massive kickback investigation. Brazilâ(TM)s judiciary is inefficient and subject to political and economic influence. The court system is overburdened, and contract disputes can be lengthy and complex."
Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then? All they are doing is highlighting what an embarassment their country is. It's crazy. Any why would a healthy, fit, above average jock want to risk his or her health or even life, by going to this shithole?
I don't think USA Olympic athletes are covered by health insurance, because 'Murica. If they even have Obamacare, they are probably lucky. If you get a serious illness that could take years to eradicate, our athletes might be begging on the streets to make their doctor payments. And nobody is putting a sickly bronze-winner on the box of Wheaties.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
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?
There are about 6.4 million people living in Rio. They know what they can and cannot do safely. Copy that and you are done. Hint: Washing your hands before eating and not drinking unboiled tap-water pretty much covers it.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
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.
Hand sanitizer will do absolutely nothing to keep athletes from being infected with pathogens from the water. If they cannot deal with the problem then they need to change the venue. If that is not in Brazil then so be it.
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."
All fine but if the water is filled with fecal matter or other pathogens there are countless other ways they can get sick, many of which can affect their athletic performance. Hard to win a gold medal when you are puking your guts out from exposure to pathogens.
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 got the Olympics. I'd say they outsmarted everyone.
Apparently you've never heard of the winner's curse. It's not hard to argue that "winning" the right to host the Olympics is something of a Pyrrhic victory. It's really expensive to host the games and relatively few games are profitable for the host country.
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.
And don't forget leptospirosis as well. GF got it, was misdiagnosed repeatedly and almost died of it.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
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. 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? I see fruit dropped from trees, yet there's WAY fewer bugs, and I've yet to see a single rat. The water doesn't smell; people here swim in it all the time, yet the hospitals aren't overflowing with sick folks. It's true, all the locals drink filtered water, but that's NOT connected to the lake. It's called Lagoa BTW, for lagoon in portuguese. The tap water is tainted because poor people break into the water mains feeding the city to get free water, and they don't exactly make good plumbers. Try applying statistics 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 in the lagoon. If they are so afraid, then take some antibiotics while here, a few yogurts (or kefir) when done, and call it good. But all that "Oh God it's a shithole!" is far from the truth - you're just regurgitating what you read in the sensationalist media. Stop playing telephone and ask someone who's been there - Rio is Fine; far cleaner than many other cities I've seen.
On the one hand you take life too seriously, and on the other, you do not take playful existence seriously enough. Seth
"Hey, is this where the water polo events are being held?"
"No, no, read sign, estupido! It say 'water polio'!"
I'd spend a year walking if I had to leave such a shit hole.
You have died of dysentery
"This. All day, this.
We populated the entire damn earth by walking."
There were no electric fences then and you didn't need any Visa either.
yes, but come over the greatest hurdles they paid for it, the ones fleeing are not the poor ones, its the ppl who had money before the conflict started, now they had to pay off smugglers to take them to places and come broke to those countries