Anyone else not watching the summer Olympics?

[WalkinTarget]

Great images from the opening ceremony:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200..._ceremony.html

I watched maybe 45 minutes to show our daughter what it was about. She's 4, so it was nothing but 'ohhhhh,ahhhhh' from her the entire time. There's an HD torrent available of the entire thing, weighing in at 3.26gb, and an SD at only 1gb available as well.

[Rand{CLR}]

The effects of smog:

I noticed a lot of hot, sweaty folks during the opening ceremonies, so I looked up Beijing's weather. As of 10am their time, you could see:

Air temp: 85 F
Humidity: ~68% (less than MD and the deep south most days in summer)

Feels like: 113 F

That's all heat blanket effect. Insane--not only does everyone have to deal with trying to breathe, but they're doing it in horrendous heat conditions.

-Rand

[Rand{CLR}]

You guys missed a heck of a 4x100 race. And parts of the Men's Gymnastics Finals were good last night.

On another note, the Chinese decision to focus their Olympic funds on sports with multiple chances for medals is paying off big-time. They have SIX (!) Weighlifting golds already, and 5 Shooting medals. These and things like Judo are sports where there are a ton of medals up for grabs because of how many classifications there are, and they are raking in medals because of it.

-Rand

[Apache Warrior]

That was without a doubt the best swimming race of all time. I was watching it and I still have trouble believing the finish. And 5 teams beat the old world record.
Apache

[LIMEY]

I am open minded enough to separate sports and politics, while a dislike China and it's human rights record, pollution etc, I still admire great athletics

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

You guys missed a heck of a 4x100 race. And parts of the Men's Gymnastics Finals were good last night.

That race was absolutely insane! I think that Phelps could win out now that he has his toughest races down.

I watched almost all of the men's gymnastics finals. I seriously thought that the US was going to get a silver, until they got to pommel horse. The Chinese were very dominant, like they wanted to, winning by 5+ points (which is basically a blowout). The Japanese on the other hand, only got the silver because of US mistakes. They didn't do anything spectacular.

This is the first time that I am really following the Olympics closely, mostly because of all the access we have. The online stream/video is awesome!

[Thrashdragon]

I did end up catching quite a bit of the swimming as they had it on in the bar last night. Whenever we won, the entire bar would yell, "AMERICA! F*** YEAH!" (from Team America World Police)

It was pretty awesome.

[lady-MGS]

I've been watching as much as I can. I don't agree w/ China but I'm not going to pass up the Olympics.

Phelps kicks butt!! He is just insane to watch. I wonder if Thorpe retired because Phelps showed him who really was the boss.. lol

The gymnastics has been fun to watch but as always the judging is so off. I also think the age thing should be checked into a little more.

[{CLR} Naillik]

I can't find the right channel

[Rand{CLR}]

The online stream/video is awesome!

This is a gigantic +1. This is easily the greatest streaming application of all time, without question. The only problem is, most of the stuff is only on from 10 pm until about 5 am EST, with the good stuff between 11:30 and 3.

Nailik, try to access this feed at NBCOlympics.com. They're not showing the big sports on it, but everything else (just about literally) is available on the feed. You'll need to look at a Canadian TV guide or something to find the channels carrying the big events up there.

-Rand

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

This is a gigantic +1. This is easily the greatest streaming application of all time, without question. The only problem is, most of the stuff is only on from 10 pm until about 5 am EST, with the good stuff between 11:30 and 3.

Nailik, try to access this feed at NBCOlympics.com. They're not showing the big sports on it, but everything else (just about literally) is available on the feed. You'll need to look at a Canadian TV guide or something to find the channels carrying the big events up there.

-Rand

They also have highlights and replays if you want to see something that you missed, or just want to see it again.

[{CLR} Naillik]

crazy swim race there...... lotsa people shattered that world record. I haven't had a chance to watch anything live yet though
Have the 100m sprints already been done?
hope not. I really wanted to see them.

[ViTO]

I'm really interested in the whole Micheal Phelps story.

and watching him break the record tonight. GO USA !!

also I will watch the USA Basketball re-match against Greece.
USA is going to set an example of them after there loss to them in the semi-finals last time they met. This should be fun.

Poor Greece

[Rand{CLR}]

Observations from tonight:

1. There appears to be some bias towards China in both men's and women's gymnastics.
2. There is no way those Chinese girls are all 16+. Several of them look no older than about 13-14.
3. Michael Phelps is good...
4. ...however, I'm getting a bit tired of seeing pictures of him sleeping, eating, and playing with his dog.
5. Katie Hoff is over-rated. She's like the Bode Miller of these games.
6. Doubles Table Tennis is ABSOLUTELY BONKERS INSANE!
7. Little dudes can lift a lot of weights.
8. Mongolian-descended archers seem to have the blood of their ancestors. They're pretty good.

-Rand

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

Observations from tonight:
2. There is no way those Chinese girls are all 16+. Several of them look no older than about 13-14.

+1..

In our local paper, they said the average size of them is 4' 7" and 77 pounds.

Generally, girls are almost done maturing by age 16, so how are they so small? I know that gymnastics is really tough on your joints, so it hinders growth slightly, but not THAT much.