It was just another element in the massive, sponsor-driven, energy consuming, marketing fest that has become the Olympics, in my view.

I suspect that the massive energy consumption of the whole, daft, Olympic flame convoy, associated marketing carnivals at every overnight stop, etc overwhelmingly exceeded the few canisters of gas that the torches used.

At my wife's behest ("Don't be a misery!"), I watched about 20 minutes of the opening ceremony and simply had to retreat with embarrassment at the cringe-making antics on show. Beijing may have been overtly red-flag-waving, but it was at least watchable for the spectacle alone, which is what such events are supposed to be all about. I didn't think it was possible for things to get any worse than the best of the Jubiliee celebrations but, good old Britain in the grips of a recession, proved it could always prove me wrong by pushing forward a bunch of kids in pyjamas.

I sort of enjoyed it Joiner. I thought the NHS bit would have been lost on the, "majority" international audience, and did nothing for me.
Why start the histrionics with pastoral Britain. Where were the Romans and Boudicca, or the Vikings, Castles and Kings,-- loosing their heads, Robin Hood, or Shakespear, or a hundred national heroes, or Railway history, or Pubs, and all the things that the wider world know Britain for. To single out childrens literature did seem odd to me too, together with the Great Ormand Street stuff was IMO overkill. The reference to the WWW was a nice touch maybe they should have pushed a reminder about computers too, or a dozen other things.
The overall choreography I thought good, as was the occasional humour, and the scene changing and general impact was fine, especially the forging of the five rings, which was nothing short of brilliant. Perhaps a little too much popular music culture stuff, and I say that as a music lover, a little more Celtic fringe input here instead, woukld have been more balanced, swirling kilts 'n all. Maybe it was there and the TV coverage wasn't comprehensive enough.

Nah. All downhill from here...

http://www.wenlock-olympian-society.org.uk/history/wpb/first-olympian-games.shtml

I'm totally for sport, sporting competition.
But it's like most things, you can take elements too far.
I'm totally with JSHarris (post above) that the spin on top of and around the sport has gone to far.
It has become an overly sponsor-driven, energy consuming, marketing fest.
- Mc Donalds, Coca Cola and the DOW chemicals are not, to me, ethical, sporting, olypic sporting value companies.
- DOW are the current owner of the the Bhopal plant that was later sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd.
Civil and criminal cases are pending, regarding the Bhopal disaster, in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL employees

And the little oversight of not having to provide the same level of safety margin as would be demanded in the company's home territory? The cost of such safety margins would make it an incredibly expensive business unless such measures could be avoided by siting plants in third-world countries where politicians and people's lives come cheap.

....

Posted By: JoinerAt my wife's behest ("Don't be a misery!"), I watched about 20 minutes of the opening ceremony and simply had to retreat with embarrassment at the cringe-making antics on show.

The first part was a bit cringe making but on balance it was ok to good. Not same as China but could have been a lot lot worse. The bit about forging the rings was good as was the actual design of the flame.

I was in London a couple of weeks ago and asked one of the taxi drivers if he was looking forward to all the money he was going to make out of the Olympics. He said he had booked a villa in Spain for the duration, as had a lot of guys he knew, because the chaos (and he pointed to the road lane we were in and the Olympic signs thereon) would make it impossible to work AND keep his sanity.

London without the Olympics is enough to put me off the place, but with the Olympics...!

Funny about the opening ceremony. We went out for lunch with a group of family and friends yesterday and of the 12 people there it was evenly divided over likes and dislikes, and all for the same reasons.

No James, you've got it wrong mate. Only lawyers constitute pollution, however many ells it's got!

I loved the creativity of the final flame moment when it all came together and rose into one big torch, but a part of me (the British bit) fully expected one of the pipes to stay where it was on the ground! It didn't happen though, hurrah!

Kingston town centre was quite quiet generally from a shopping pov with the time trials whizzing down one side earlier: again, I think anyone not actively setting out to watch the sport has hung back to avoid getting snarled up in traffic, and that may be the right thing to do. Poor day for the shops though.

My windows were due to have their final measurements taken for the upgrade to 3G today, but I pointed out to the surveyor that his journeys to and from me would clash with the cycling and he might want to avoid that, so he's coming tomorrow instead. Does no harm, reduces potential conflict.

A but like Y2K: if everything works it looks like the worry was overdone.

Rgds

Damon

Hey come on now! Once every 4 years. At least with some of the Chinese population over here the number of coal fired stations built in China this month might fall? Actually some may stay long term so the benefit could be massive. Has anyone told the athletes that need to go home after?
No, not racist just making a point.

A digression, but thought it might provoke a few raised eyebrows...

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article-2183485/Adam-Naisbit-Officials-pull-plug-Twitter-tickets-alerts-London-Olympics-2012.html