It was only last night that I grasped that the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Beijing commenced today. The event is being given round the clock treatment by the BBC, with over two thousand hours of coverage during the next sixteen days which is 125 hours a day, presumably covering two terrestrial channels, two radio channels and Sat TV channels. The coverage is not surprising given that the UK hosts the games in 2012. The talking up of medal prospects is to justify the expenditure and get everyone involved in the in the preparations for 2012. I ought to consider trying to get tickets for this once in a lifetime event.
There some10500 athletes from 204 countries; there should have been 2005 but one team failed to register. I thought this was Iraq who had been unable to create an acceptable Olympic committee but they had a boat in the rowing pairs so it must be another country.
The Chinese are said to have spent 42 Billion dollars and promised a truly mind blowing opening ceremony in the nineteen thousand seater stadium. It is evident that a large proportion of crowd in the stadium were Chinese, but how many represented ordinary workers or anyone else in the stadium represented ordinary folk from the rest of the world? The heads of the 204 countries participating were invited and Bush and Putin were in evidence, and saying hullo to each other. Were events in Georgia mentioned. Princess Anne represented the Queen. It was not clear how many tickets were also allocated to other state representatives in addition to the Olympic committee members and staff. Obviously the UK 2012 politicians and administrators and designers would have been out there in force, learning from the Chinese and working out how to impress everyone without bankrupting the nation.
The opening ceremony was long but impressive as fitting all the money spent with several wow factors. For a nation with invented gunpowder the fireworks lit up the city with plenty of bursts of red but were not as spectacular as the concentrated display of Sydney at the Millennium and London New Year's since.
There were fantastic display which involved years of practice involving tens of thousands akin to the great display of Hitler and Russia in times past. It my understanding that participants were given privileges and promises for their education, work and status, but there enthusiasm and pride was evident for everyone to see and the majority remain oblivious to how the capitalist and democratic worlds views their situation. From the state's viewpoint restricting couples to one child was a courageous decision to ensure everyone is fed and provide the foundation for the present economic take off and from the rest of the world restricting the population to less than two billion and less than 50% of the world's population ought to be considered a good thing. But from the viewpoint of individual Chinese couples the impact has been devastating and led to mass abortions.
Prior to the Opening ceremony the emphasis was on the position of Tibet and the position of Dali Lama. I have been fascinated with the situation in Tibet and enjoyed films such as Kundun but that has not blinded to the fact that under the Lama the majority of the population were regarded and treated as slaves. There is always conflict between ignorant and primitive people being allowed to retain their ways of life, regardless, for example, on the impact and treatment of children, women, minorities and those who want a different life. The recent Tribal wives programmes showed compulsory circumcisions and women doing all the hard work while men sat around giving the orders.
There was one surprise which was the number of beautiful young and graceful women on display and the great wow of the opening was the former gymnast who ran round the inner rim of the stadium as a screen unfolded showing the progress of the torch around the world. Until he reached the point when the large torch was lit. This was one of several great creative moments.
The arrival of the teams into the stadium took hours and the British showed great discourtesy to the hosts by less than a third of the team attending the ceremony. I understand it is left to individual competitors to decide with those who involved in the first events given and blanket exemption. This underlines the winning at all costs mentality and far from the original spirit of the games, I hope there will be a three line whip issued for the opening ceremony in London.
I have a great idea for the future that the host nation should either not compete or if they compete would not receive medals which would go to the highest placed performers outside the host nation.
The ceremony commenced on the eighth hour of the eight day of the eight month of the eight year of the Millennium.
Durham won the game against Kent after the eight wicket partnership commenced to score runs. Durham was also not criticised for the condition of the pitch which means that they had the Championship tonight with a game in hand but are yet to establish a lead of significance and hey have some major games away, including Kent.
The fortunes of Durham men continued to smile because Paul Collingwood again scored half a century at he test in support of Captain Petersen who scored 100 while Harmison scored 49 not out his highest test score by luck and some led.
As anticipated the disappointment of the night was America has got talent. No one in the last four really impressed although ventriloquist was perhaps the best and could win.
I left going for frozen food after defrosting the freezer until after the English Innings ended. I bought three medium size chicken for £10 and two pork with sage stuffing rather that pork with Crackling plus some chicken pieces Southern coasted. I also bought some pasta dishes and chilli sauce. I has dish with a mixture of last chips and last of packet of potatoes for roasting and then a salmon salad.
Having registered the desktop on line I enquired about the card reader. And will consider or buy an add on USB which works with Vista . If necessary, although there is merit in keeping the photos on a separate computer until copies are made.
Hearts is now at 28% with the next objective 33% but I keep doing well at second kevel chess with the highest run 60 out of the 101 target and then one second lack of concentration and back to zero.
I went to bed early after having slept watching TV and did not settle so returned and did some computer house keeping which involved the uploading and installing of Vista update pack one and this happened after updating pack was installed with the initial burst of updates when going on line for the first time. I suspect that there has been too much update over too short a time and that it will take time for everything to settle down and for problems to sort out. Not going on lime which seemed a good idea at the time was a mistake.
There some10500 athletes from 204 countries; there should have been 2005 but one team failed to register. I thought this was Iraq who had been unable to create an acceptable Olympic committee but they had a boat in the rowing pairs so it must be another country.
The Chinese are said to have spent 42 Billion dollars and promised a truly mind blowing opening ceremony in the nineteen thousand seater stadium. It is evident that a large proportion of crowd in the stadium were Chinese, but how many represented ordinary workers or anyone else in the stadium represented ordinary folk from the rest of the world? The heads of the 204 countries participating were invited and Bush and Putin were in evidence, and saying hullo to each other. Were events in Georgia mentioned. Princess Anne represented the Queen. It was not clear how many tickets were also allocated to other state representatives in addition to the Olympic committee members and staff. Obviously the UK 2012 politicians and administrators and designers would have been out there in force, learning from the Chinese and working out how to impress everyone without bankrupting the nation.
The opening ceremony was long but impressive as fitting all the money spent with several wow factors. For a nation with invented gunpowder the fireworks lit up the city with plenty of bursts of red but were not as spectacular as the concentrated display of Sydney at the Millennium and London New Year's since.
There were fantastic display which involved years of practice involving tens of thousands akin to the great display of Hitler and Russia in times past. It my understanding that participants were given privileges and promises for their education, work and status, but there enthusiasm and pride was evident for everyone to see and the majority remain oblivious to how the capitalist and democratic worlds views their situation. From the state's viewpoint restricting couples to one child was a courageous decision to ensure everyone is fed and provide the foundation for the present economic take off and from the rest of the world restricting the population to less than two billion and less than 50% of the world's population ought to be considered a good thing. But from the viewpoint of individual Chinese couples the impact has been devastating and led to mass abortions.
Prior to the Opening ceremony the emphasis was on the position of Tibet and the position of Dali Lama. I have been fascinated with the situation in Tibet and enjoyed films such as Kundun but that has not blinded to the fact that under the Lama the majority of the population were regarded and treated as slaves. There is always conflict between ignorant and primitive people being allowed to retain their ways of life, regardless, for example, on the impact and treatment of children, women, minorities and those who want a different life. The recent Tribal wives programmes showed compulsory circumcisions and women doing all the hard work while men sat around giving the orders.
There was one surprise which was the number of beautiful young and graceful women on display and the great wow of the opening was the former gymnast who ran round the inner rim of the stadium as a screen unfolded showing the progress of the torch around the world. Until he reached the point when the large torch was lit. This was one of several great creative moments.
The arrival of the teams into the stadium took hours and the British showed great discourtesy to the hosts by less than a third of the team attending the ceremony. I understand it is left to individual competitors to decide with those who involved in the first events given and blanket exemption. This underlines the winning at all costs mentality and far from the original spirit of the games, I hope there will be a three line whip issued for the opening ceremony in London.
I have a great idea for the future that the host nation should either not compete or if they compete would not receive medals which would go to the highest placed performers outside the host nation.
The ceremony commenced on the eighth hour of the eight day of the eight month of the eight year of the Millennium.
Durham won the game against Kent after the eight wicket partnership commenced to score runs. Durham was also not criticised for the condition of the pitch which means that they had the Championship tonight with a game in hand but are yet to establish a lead of significance and hey have some major games away, including Kent.
The fortunes of Durham men continued to smile because Paul Collingwood again scored half a century at he test in support of Captain Petersen who scored 100 while Harmison scored 49 not out his highest test score by luck and some led.
As anticipated the disappointment of the night was America has got talent. No one in the last four really impressed although ventriloquist was perhaps the best and could win.
I left going for frozen food after defrosting the freezer until after the English Innings ended. I bought three medium size chicken for £10 and two pork with sage stuffing rather that pork with Crackling plus some chicken pieces Southern coasted. I also bought some pasta dishes and chilli sauce. I has dish with a mixture of last chips and last of packet of potatoes for roasting and then a salmon salad.
Having registered the desktop on line I enquired about the card reader. And will consider or buy an add on USB which works with Vista . If necessary, although there is merit in keeping the photos on a separate computer until copies are made.
Hearts is now at 28% with the next objective 33% but I keep doing well at second kevel chess with the highest run 60 out of the 101 target and then one second lack of concentration and back to zero.
I went to bed early after having slept watching TV and did not settle so returned and did some computer house keeping which involved the uploading and installing of Vista update pack one and this happened after updating pack was installed with the initial burst of updates when going on line for the first time. I suspect that there has been too much update over too short a time and that it will take time for everything to settle down and for problems to sort out. Not going on lime which seemed a good idea at the time was a mistake.
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