Messages

Done.

I haven't seen the beginning but if the shots were of Copacabana and/or Ipanema beaches you bet they are actually that clean. The not-really clean beaches are the ones facing the interior of the bay (specially on Ilha do Governador), the sea-facing ones are clean if not crystalline.

Makes you wonder why the hell they aren't having any of the water based sports there, where the water would actually be safe. I mean, Vancouver was the host city 6 years ago & they held all events at Whistler, like 2.5 hours by bus away. Piss poor planning.

Are you sure there won't be any? I haven't checked, but I believe only some sail events will be on the bay, the rest will be on the Lagoa and on sea-facing beaches.

Should've said all* of the water events.

I know how seeing a dead body might be very upsetting, but I'm not placing it in the "shitshow" category yet.

I guess I have never noticed media reporting violence in close proximity of the games until now. Can't recall any bombs, shootings, robbings, muggings, or murder at any Olympics since I've been watching - namely Sochi, London, Athens, Vancouver, Salt Lake City, Beijing. Nagano & atlanta I was too young to really remember at all.

I mean, sure all cities have violent parts. It's the amount of spillover into patrons of the games in all facets for why I refer to it as a shitshow. Sochi was probably the shabbiest I can remember, and even though their village was rushed to completion, they didn't have half the shit happening that Rio is. Might be par for the course there, which if so, games should never have been held there regardless.  I mean, all for the first games ever in South America, just put em somewhere where busloads of international media 2 miles from the airport aren't going to be in the middle of gunfights.

From that last article:

Everyone arriving for the Olympic Games from the international airport must pass along the Red Line motorway which is lined in large parts by Mare community, one of the most dangerous shanty-towns in the capital, in the grip of heavily armed drugs gangs.

Two years ago, just before the 2014 World Cup games, Rio sent in the hundreds of soldiers to clean up the no-go zone, using tanks, scores of army officers and heavy weaponry to try to wrest back control of the sprawling lawless slum.

But it's evident these major security measures haven't worked.

I haven't seen the beginning but if the shots were of Copacabana and/or Ipanema beaches you bet they are actually that clean. The not-really clean beaches are the ones facing the interior of the bay (specially on Ilha do Governador), the sea-facing ones are clean if not crystalline.

Makes you wonder why the hell they aren't having any of the water based sports there, where the water would actually be safe. I mean, Vancouver was the host city 6 years ago & they held all events at Whistler, like 2.5 hours by bus away. Piss poor planning.

Sorry for the absence, but pokemon go got released here and... well...

Anyway, I actually loved the opening. I'm not going into the Santos-Dumont/Wright Brothers dispute, but they technically didn't say he invented the airplane in the opening, he was only celebrated. We learn the "brazilian no-name"'s name at school, every single one of us (and probably also at least in France), so, you know, might not be the most sensible thing to say near brazilians.

I blame the shitawful today show american commentators then. They're the ones that gave the nod that "Brazillians believe he was the first man to achieve powered flight, and that the wright brothers had no witnesses".

2 Killed near olympics site. Double the number of police & soldiers deployed as London.

Serbian rowers fall into adenovirus waters

Suspicious package/Bomb detonated by Rio police near cycling finish line. "Live" Bullets rain down on media.

False security of the opening ceremony is over. Now, the real shitshow starts.


Andddd it's only day 1.

This post is going to be edited & is just going to be my running live commentary of the opening ceremony.

Those ocean/bay swimming aerial shots are a fucking lie. As was the clean beach sand with no garbage or needles or open sewage drains.
That tinfoil blanket segment gave some poor japanese kid a seizure.
Some cool effects in the rainforest. I liked the tree going. Natives dancing with hanging ropes had potential but they didn't live up to it. China's drums were way better.
Take off those stupid ass hats.
Parkour buildings were cool.
Claiming the wright brothers were liars and some brazillian no-name was first in flight pissed me off when my nationalist pride is high. Not cool.
More stupid ass hats.
How sad is it when your country's major international figure to recognize for your ceremony is a vapid model? FFS. I get Aesthetics are a moral imperative but COME ON. Sports or GTFO.
Take off those stupid ass string shirts.
Soapbox derby is something to celebrate? Yeah, ok.
This is a terrible opening ceremony. Like, worst I can ever remember. And I remember stupid salt lake city and their mormon dinosaur.
Yes our stupid monkey species is fucking the planet, we know.
Rio I'ma let you finish, but Spaceship Earth in EPCOT had the best Judi Dench voiceover narration of all time.

Carnevale segment with the samba for closing was cool. Should've led with it. Shots over the shoulder of Cristo showing fireworks in the background were awesome. Cauldron left much to be desired.

Totally lackluster opener. That was 5 hours of my life I won't be getting back. But hey, that's the only 5 hours we as a stupid species come together in peaceful unity every 2 years.

Alright, it starts. Commence the next 2 weeks of cesspool swimming and boating coverage with a side of a global Zika Pandemic because why not.

Because I love this state.

Watching news before opening ceremony of the shitshow begins, there's a segment about a new ad by CDOT in Denver. This ad is a billboard with a crumbled up white car shaped like a joint that reads "Don't hit and drive".


NBC local affiliate in Denver decided you know what, I want to know how much a joint the size of a car would cost. So they figured up the weight for an average sedan X the average cost of .5 oz of heathen devil plant in Denver. A joint the size of a car would cost 19.5 Million.

Fuck I love it here. Should never have spent the depression months in TN. Should've come back immediately after the navy mistake. 

...wow.

http://shanghaiist.com/2016/08/05/rio_roadside_shoot_out.php

The 2016 Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin today, but for some it has already began with a bang.

Upon their arrival in Rio, a bus full of Chinese basketball reporters was caught in a roadside gunfight. Six locals were killed in the exchange, but no Chinese casualties have been reported.

It's too late to cancel the games, right? Fucking hell. Might as well have sent our athletes and reporters to Syria.

3, 5, & 8 stood out to me.

We have a shitload of spies running defense, apparently.

This morning we have a child prostitution ring near the village being broken up, flooding in a village hotel, media being robbed INSIDE their rooms in media village, GB's swim team having all their kits stolen & now being without olympic swimwear. All just a few hours before the opening ceremony.

Oh, and everyone is also prohibited from making gif's of the olympics 

In general olympics news today (as I'm religiously reading this stuff the next 3 weeks), skateboarding is an official sport for 2020 Tokyo, which is fucking AWESOME. As a devout snowboarder, I say it should've been all along.

This NYT footage of Trump rally crowds is sort of terrifying. Disclaimer: language and slurs in full effect.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004533191/unfiltered-voices-from-donald-trumps-crowds.html

Sano,

Any confirmation on today's mass protests that are being reported? Is the unrest being portrayed actually accurate?

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article92947932.html

There have been mass protests basically monthly in every major brazillian city since 2013. This is a bit difficult to explain, but I'll try.

So now, and specially with the recent political scandals, there's always mass protests, but at the media's whim and with a lot of manipulation by it and the right.

tl;dr It's utter chaos down here.

Found an article full of pics from Tuesday's protest: http://www.voaafrique.com/a/rio-olympics-protest/3447177.html

Edit: Voir Plus? on that site expands for the rest of them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36971906

The Olympic torch has arrived in Rio de Janeiro by boat after a three-month tour of Brazilian cities.

The mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, carried the torch on its first few laps through the city centre.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/08/02/3803298/rio-olympics-eduardo-paes-sustainability/