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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."
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.
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No need to be stupid to have unsanitary runoff in the lagoon, just poor.
If you're poor enough, you can't even leave.
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.]
"The stupidity is on the part of the IOC "
No, they got their kickbacks I assure you. So the only people who lose are the athletes.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Shit Lagoon Rowing Competition! Who will get the gold!
Who will get the brown?
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
Stupid, no. The got the Olympics
Getting the Olympics is a winning proposition less than 50% of the time. It costs more to put on the olympics than the revenues from them. It only financially works if the facilities are used after the Olympics are over, which means that the facilities have to be built well enough to stand for decades, which means that they cost even more to build. There are lot more Sarajevos than there are Lake Placids.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
"The stupidity is on the part of the IOC "
No, they got their kickbacks I assure you. So the only people who lose are the athletes.
The IOC should get that money...laundered (at a high enough temperature to kill microbes).
YEAAAAHHHH!!!
Tourists will be staying away from this Olympics in droves, so it is virtually guaranteed to be the biggest money loser in Olympic history. I suspect a few athletes may decide not to show up as well, to protect their own health. If the IOC wasn't so corrupt, they'd move the Olympics to an emergency backup location, say one of the many cities that have hosted in the past and still have the facilities (e.g. Los Angeles).
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
"Well sure, we're up Shit Creek... but at least we have paddles!" -- overheard at Olympic rowing event
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
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.
Is the IOC that stupid or is this just a corrupt best bribe wins scenario?
Yes.
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.
"Hey, is this where the water polo events are being held?"
"No, no, read sign, estupido! It say 'water polio'!"
As much as it pains me to say (I'm a Brazilian), it's not a matter of being poor.
It's just about being stupid. We have had a lot of news about corruption right now and some imbeciles equate corruption with the current leadership. No doubt they are part of the problem, but Rio de Janeiro, for instance has been polluted for decades.
Crime has been somewhat tackled in recent years (probably because of the World Football/Soccer Cup), but results are mediocre, to be frank.
Instead of solving the problems, Politicians are opportunists and want to profit from every failure.
If one looks at a sufficient long time period -- say 20 years -- , it can be seen that things improved. But it all happens at snail pace.
Other people fixed their problems: Japan, Korea, Germany... we could have done it, too. But we get lost in Political bickering, we fail at bringing education to the masses and now we must face a lot of shame when inviting everyone to a party here.
Maybe we need to go through all this, maybe it's karma, I don't know... it's not like other countries don't have also their share of problems.
But it's quite a shame, indeed...
If the IOC wasn't corrupt, there should be one location for the Summer Olympics (it should be in Greece, where the ancient Olympics are held), and the Winter Olympics should be held in another location, one that is guaranteed to have snow. Throw a few hundred billion at each location; major airports, venues, hospitals, living facilities, and then it's just the cost of maintenance. No more shopping around for kickbacks for the winning society, and no more need for the IOC in its current form.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.