And here are some bits and bobs from yesterday — mostly Olympics, I think.
Olympics
- The Opening Ceremony of the Olympics – On some messages Danny Boyle was sending, domestic and international.
- More on NBC’s “adaptation” of the Opening Ceremonies – Is there anything they didn’t actually mess up?
- Olympic coverage – via Dave Barry in 1996. The more things change …
- More NBC Opening Ceremony Fail – Imagine if the BBC edited out a tribute in an US-based Olympics to the victims of 9/11, in favor of an interview with some English athlete. Stay classy, NBC!
- Folks who sound like they have an arrow through their head – Demonstrating once again that there is a difference between rooting for your tribe and being an asshole about it.
- The Olympics really does bring people together … – … in their disdain for how NBC handled the opening ceremonies.
- The Olympic Map – Nice interactive map of countries participating over the years.
Non-Olympics
- “The message all of this sends out, especially to younger officers in the force, is one of impunity” – Looking at the NYPD during the Occupy Wall Street protests.
- A climate skeptic changes his mind – And does so on the Koch Bros. nickel. A good read.
- The monoculture economy – Putting all our economic eggs in one crop basket, and what the drought means because of that.
60 view(s)
Re the archery. There seems to be something about Americans that just rubs people up the wrong way, possibly because many of them appear to get so aggressive at sports.
I went to see the women’s hockey Tuesday. 2 matches US v Argentina, and Germany v Australia.
At the start of the US match many spectators were fairly neutral, though there were groups of Americans and Argentinians scattered round the stadium. As the match progressed the crowd became more and more partisan, cheering for the Argentines, I mean proper roars. It appeared the more the Americans chanted U-S-A, the more they drove the neutrals into the opposing camp.
Its something about that chant. It comes across very aggressive, Nuremburg-ian even – it plugs straight into the spine. It would help if there was some creativity and humour in US fans, but they don’t have songs, or chants, just YOU-ESS-AY. Contrast this with the small groups of Argentinians who could be heard singing from 60 yards away.
The second match was far better from a supporter point of view. The Americans had left, (1 session is 2 matches) which was a pity because they would have see the Ozzies showing them how it should be done. The 2 (slighty worse the for wear) Germans behind us were also funny – They REALLY threw themselves into their national anthem, and never stopped shouting Deutchland [clap-clap-clap] calling their team on even at 3-1 downand everyone applauded good play on both sides.
Singing at sporting events doesn’t seem to be an American sort of thing to do, at least not in the way I’ve seen at European matches (thinking football/soccer in particular).
Not quite sure why chanting “USA” is more eerie than shouting “Deutchland [clap-clap-clap]”, but I’ll take your word for it.
I’m hoping the in-person behavior of the American fans there doesn’t dip to the level of jingoism in the comments mentioned in that post.
Yeah, you lot REALLY need to learn how to enjoy yourselves 😉 Learn some songs. Worth YouTubing the ‘Barmy Army’ – the English Cricket fans who do all sorts of (at times ‘ripe’) songs, especially when aimed at the Aussies (who can give as good as they get).
I think its the growly nature of three letters- proper words need to be cadenced properly. The aggressive nature of some Colimbines doesn’t help (see original story). Didn’t something similar happen before – The Japanese Tsunami with abusive tweets?