I thought the opening ceremonies were well-done and entertaining. I actually enjoyed the little bits of humor, including the Mr. Bean bit and the stuff with the queen. Things inevitably get a little silly during events like this (all the Mary Poppins floating in on umbrellas made me laugh a bit), but overall I thought it was a good show. Artic Monkeys did a fantastic job!

Looking forward to the next two weeks...

+1, The Brit's did a fantastic job on the opening ceremony.

You want insight? Look up the history of the Olympics, it's quite interesting.

Yeah I watched most of the opening ceremony was impressed with it, Her Majesty the Queen played her part well I though at her age jumping out of that helicopter
Official Olympic song Muse - Survival http://stereogum.com/1078371/muse-survi ... song/mp3s/

Perhaps someday this will make it as an Olympic sport...
Icarus would be envious...

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No, I understand the history aspect, but I don't understand the "why" aspect. This is part of the reason I failed algebra twice. I think about the why, more so than the how, like "Why do you want me to find x?" or "Why do I need to find x?" I've never gotten an answer to those questions other than "Because you need it to graduate." which, in my mind, is not an acceptable answer. I want to know the reason for the math being created in the first place, not why I need to use it.

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Are you asking, why, philosophically, do we have the Olympics, or organized sports in general? I believe athletics are a basic human endeavor -- the idea of honing your body to perform in peak physical condition isn't all that far removed from honing artistic or musical skills. For those who excel in sports -- athletic competition provides a mechanism for developing their God-given talents to their fullest potential.

I'm not the world's most athletic guy, but I do like to run, and I've participated in a fair number of road races over the last decade or so. A few years back, I trained for and completed the New York City Marathon. The experience of setting a goal (in my case, completing the race in under four hours), taking the steps to complete it (ie., doing all the training runs, speed workouts, weight training, etc.) and then reaching the goal was amazingly satisfying and fulfilling -- it was an experience that I still look back on and can take pride in to this day.

The Olympics provide athletes with the opportunity to showcase their talents and compete against their peers on the grandest of stages, with the entire world watching. It can mean the fulfillment of lifelong dreams for those involved and be an inspiration to those who watch. Will it end hunger or bring about world peace? Not likely. But, like a great concert, a great movie or a great book...sports -- at their best -- can provide the spice that helps to make like just a little more interesting and worthwhile.

Without a doubt mate..... If we had 250 odd million people we would take 80% of the complete medal tally.....

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If so was- I think perhaps I would be watching the Olympics
Thanks for the link!

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A-man

Hi Buxom: all sport is sublimated warfare. It's a method for humans to beat each other up with relatively few fatalities.

We're evolved to live in tribal groups, and tribes compete violently for territory and resources. Those instincts run deep and though nowadays the veneer of civilisation encourages us to try not to kill one another quite so often still people need an outlet for those urges. So team sports exist as a ritualised form of tribal warfare and individual sports symbolise single combat.

The ancient Greeks invented their Olympic sports as a demonstration of the skills needed on the battle field. That's perfectly obvious with things like the javelin, wrestling, running and lifting. It might seem less obvious today with rarified things like gymnastics, but in fact the same competitive physical prowess is being tested. Even beach volleyball and synchronised swimming are in fact about tribal battle - though that may not be why some of us think we are watching them...

Personally, I'm not much interested in being in tribes or beating people with clubs. So sport is mostly not my thing. But I did think the Olympic opening ceremony was very fine and I found the lighting of the cauldron magnificent. It symbolises the flames of the 204 individual countries coming together to make one huge flame. Nobody's ever done it that way before and I thought it was a stroke of genius.

Joining people together - now that I'm up for.







Cheers - C

EDIT - repeatedly, for egregious typos.

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I'm enjoying the olympics. It's a chance for my area to be in the world's spotlight, and although the news may have been a bit too olympics crazed, it's all fun. I know one of the torchbearers, and went to see them run-that was cool. I also have tickets for an indoor volleyball match, it looks really fun, the matches so far that I have seen have been great. I also saw the cycling yesterday, shame for team GB-what happened? They are the best cycling team in the world, but were so lame... They didn't seem to realise that to win a race, you have to be the fastest, at the front. They were so confident in their strategy, whilst everyone else whizzed past them...

Just got my fingers crossed that we can beat the ozzies Apparently that is a good goal. Not sure if we will repeat our performance of 2008, 3rd place, though.

I think the final positions should depend on medals awarded per capita. That way, little UK would do really well!

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Hi almungo: last Thursday the torch parade came past the end of my street so we strolled down for a look. I assumed the good people of Peckham would ignore it with their usual cynicism but in fact they turned out in their thousands for it. There was a great party atmosphere and altogether it was lots of fun. And suddenly - Olympic fever struck! Whadayaknow? Maybe this thing could be cool!



Yeah, that's kind of the trick, isn't it? The idea is to win and then be graceful about it; not lose and then be graceless. You listening, Mark Cavendish? Andy Murray...?

Cheers - C

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I thought the opening ceremony was brilliant, and went off without a hitch.

Also David Beckham is the coolest person on the planet.

I was in Surrey yesterday and we went to Dorking to watch the road race come though, atmosphere was fantastic.

Yes, the same thing happened round my way-was expecting a few people to turn up, mainly people from my school for our friend, but I've never seen the highstreet so packed!



Well, we're doing well in the gymnastics, and womens football They play brazil at some point soon As for the men... I don't understand why they didn't take the England team, and perhaps add the finest scottish and welsh players? It would make sense-we have the best national team of the UK, but there are some good players from up north and in wales that would make worthy additions. At the moment, they are basically just playing a B team...

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Mr Bean playing with the London Symphony Orchestra was one of the funniest things I have seen in a while... I think that was the highlight of the evening

You saw it in Dorking? Sounds great-how was it? I thought about going there, but I thought that it would be packed, with everyone going there. I went to Gomshall instead, it was busy but not packed, and the atmosphere was awesome.

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