david_carnell

I'm interested because it is the pinnacle of human achievement in certain fields. Once every fours years (i.e. not that often) the greatest gather from around the world to test themselves against others in the zenith of their respective sports. I'd like to see certain sports removed from the Olympics mainly because other events matter more in their calendar. Tennis for example. None of them care about the Olympics more than the four majors so it should be abolished. And not replaced by darts. I don't know much about many of the athletes either, but as anyone who has ever done sport at a high level will attest, the determination and guile needed merely to get to the Games, let alone succeed when you're there, is worthy of our admiration, regardless of nationality. It's nice when a Brit wins something but I'm quite content watching even obscure sports I normally wouldn't bother with, because this is as good as it will get.

That or all their medals have come in fencing which starts and finishes in the first few days. See how many they get for the rest of the Olympics.

After this mornings two golds and two more world records, Michael Phelps can justifiably call himself the greatest Olympian ever. Discuss.

Grim.

Or sky plus HD

@ClareC - Derailed. With Clive Owen and Xzibit. I don't wish to question your taste but you'd be one of only a small number to have really liked that film. But you're spot on in that it most certainly isn't a "Aniston" role. Perhaps an attempt to free herself from 'Rachel' roles.

Brendan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Can I play devil?s advocate and point out that > Eastern Europeans and Russians come from > significantly different genetic stock to white > Americans and British? *Gasp!* What's that you say Brendan? All white folks aren't the same? Nah, mate, you're 'avin' a giggle. Next you'll be saying that Ethiopians are different to Nigerians. I won't have it!

Of course genetics play some role in whether you're a good athlete. Partly due to genetic pre-disposition and partly down to good nutrition from birth, at 6'2" I'm quite tall. This would make me naturally better at many sports than someone of 5'2". Whether I put that genetic advantage to good use however is almost entirely down to cultural and environmental factors. Your point about "all of us could choose to run every day" is a good one. It highlights the above point neatly. Most of choose not to run at all. Ergo, we're pretty bad at running. Nothing to do with race. And I didn't mean to patronise you with simple racial biology of African tribes, merely highlighting the blurred boundaries of ethnicity. I don't think that a form-book of twenty years is really sufficient to accurately say that from now on only black people will win sprints. Up until recently, black Americans dominated heavyweight boxing. The white fellas put in against them were routinely pummeled (eg. ol' Henry Cooper or Joe Bugner) and the general perception was that there was a natural predisposed strength and stamina to be attributed. Then in the 21st century the heavyweight division is now dominated by Eastern Europeans and Russians. Cultural tides.

Dog Day Afternoon Serpico Third Man Big Lebowski Monty Python & the Holy Grail Terminator North by Northwest Blues Brothers The Hustler Once Upon a Time in the West ...but like many others, this changes regularly.

Medal in canoeing. Silver. Fella called David Florence. C1 canoeing for those interested. Don't ask me to tell you what that means though. Meanwhile, Phelps looks superhuman and is now officially one gold medal away from being the greatest Olympian of all time. Frightening stuff for someone younger than me....that's young before you ask!

I think it's the term "black sprinter" or "black athlete" that leads to the confusion. By grouping together all athletes of a certain skin pigmentation, whilst not racist, is certainly simplistic and definitely wrong. What is really being said is that, in the example of long distance running, a very specific area of the the Rift Valley in Kenya seems to produce very good runners. As has been well documented, Kenyans from well-defined areas in the Rift Valley are strikingly successful at running 3,000m and above. Up until 1993 the Kalenjin tribe won 317 medals and the neighbouring Gussi people won 78. These figures amounted respectively to 63 per cent and 15 per cent of the 506 medals won by Kenyan athletes in major competitions. This however, doesn't amount to "blacks" being good at running. The fallacy may not seem obvious because we are so used to thinking that ?black? and ?white? refer to biologically significant groupings. So let us imagine a similar argument using the Central African Bambuti, a tribe commonly referred to as Pygmies. With an average height of 4ft we can safely assert that the Bambuti have a natural superiority when it comes to walking under low ceilings. Would it be legitimate to extrapolate from this that blacks in general have a natural advantage at walking under low ceilings? The problem for the ?racial scientist? is his yearning to generalise. It's like saying that whites are excellent skiers. Really, what we're saying is that some Scandanavians and alps-based folk are pretty darn hot when it comes to going down slopes on planks of wood. Frankly, the rest of the "white" populous of the world are terrible at skiing. Just ask any Australian. Except those who live near ski resorts. And exceptions are easy to find. Olympic basketball champions? The mighty afro-caribbean ganglies of the USA? Their ancestral homelands of Mali or Somalia? Nope, Argentina.

Example: Gillian McKeith - Nutritionist Not that I'd tar you with that brush Monica (as I'm sure you have little interest in people's poo) but her fraudulent qualifications and pseudo-science wibble about photosynthesis in the gut etc do the nutritionist's lot no favours. If I could perhaps ask Jamma's question in a nicer way: Why did you not choose to become a medically recognised dietician rather than a nutritionist with all the problems and issues that brings? Surely you must have known the lack of respect your profession gets from large quarters of the scientific and medical professions?

Rico Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > And if you argue they have few choices to afford > living elsewhere - then great - think of the money > they'll save not smoking and can more quickly get > on their feet and move on. Isn't that the point > of council housing: a short term fix to allow > folks to get on their feet again and move on? Mmm, and if only we banned them from drinking alcohol or even soft drinks as well and only let them have tap water, think how much that could save. Oh, and if they only ate lentils and pasta too. No fresh veg or meat - waste of money. Then they could gratefully join the rest of us in the delight that is the home-owning democracy. Hurrah!

You're effectively banning the poor from smoking inside their homes till they can afford to rent or buy privately. Bonkers indeed.

The whole argument about blacks being better sprinters/whites being better swimmers etc is unbeleivably simplified. It's like trying to explain quantum physics using only GCSE maths - you can't do it. The infitessimal number of variations of heredity, cultural and environmental influences over generations make trying to explain away sporting prowess through simple genetics a fruitless exercise. Whilst a few scientifics papers allude to African infants having more advanced motor development than whites, African men have greater bone density and lower body-fat ratios than their non-African counterparts and Japanese researchers observed that athletes of African extraction had stiffer muscles than whites, a trait they concluded "could contribute to greater sprint/jump performance among black athletes", no scientific study shows that one ethnic group is profoundly different overall ? for better or worse ? than another. To start with, the current crop of West-African originating successful sprinters do not come from Senegal they come from the West. European and Native American or other aboriginal bloodlines will have substantially diluted the West African ancestry of any recent sprint champions from the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. There may be few great basketball players among the Aleut natives of Alaska, but you've never seen a great seal fisherman on the playgrounds of Compton either, have you? Cultural effects play a massive role. The elite athletes that people see on television represent only a tiny fraction of any given ethnic group ? one skewed by coaching, personal decisions and cultural influences.

Trust England to make a bloody pigs ear of this run-chase. Smoothly does it and then, whoops, panic sets in! For pete's sake (or is it peet's?) sawt it aht.

Old-Boy (a Korean film) made me hide behind my hands at a couple of points, due to squeemishness rather than fright, but it was an excellent film all round.

Jamie Lee Curtis is a hemaphrodite

And on and on this rumbles.... I'm suffering from dual personality disorder on this though. The politically-correct liberal pinko (that's a politics reference, not a sexuality-based one!) in me wants both minority rights - i.e. gay people should have the "right" to a bar - but inclusivity - i.e. we should all muck in together (so to speak) in one lovely bar where everyone can be friends, should be promoted above all else. Then the libertarian streak in me says well, if some schmuck reckons he make a go of a gay bar in ED then go for it. No skin off my nose. Whether they let me in or not doesn't bother me either. Private business = own rules. They'd be silly as I have cash to spend and if was a nice place to go then I couldn't care less which section of the community its designed for. Taken to its extreme though this sort of thing would allow for straight-only, men-only, whites-only establishments. Should we allow these? Most people would instinctively say no but it is a dilemma. If a person doesn't contradict employment law why shouldn't they be allowed to restrict entry to whomever they choose if they own a business? They only have themselves to blame when not enough people (are allowed to) go and it all goes tits up. So.... Do I want a gay bar in ED? Don't mind Would I go? Might do, if it was a decent bar with friendly people Would I care if they stopped me going in? No, their loss. they wouldn't last long in ED with that sort of door policy.

Ok, enough. I'm sticking up for the Olympics. Firstly, the opening ceremony was, as anyone who bothered to watch the whole thing (I was off work!) will tell you, immense. Beyond good. As a sporting event, I bloody love it. It's a pinnacle and has produced some of the finest sporting moments in modern history. I'll be glued to the telly for the next few weeks. Oh, and the rocket pack....naff! Especially when compared to bow and arrow man!

Steve - no one wants to see yout erection, legal or not. Surely a brick built garage would be eqaully secure and somewhat less antagonistic?

Good grief, I go on holiday for ten days and look what happens. We lose matches, captains and the ability to lose. Marvellous stuff. Good to be back.

But the uses of the "f-2ord" are so brilliantly varied: Greetings "How the fuck are you?" Fraud "I was fucked by the McDonalds Drive Through." Dismay "Oh, fuck it." Trouble "Well, I guess I'm fucked again." Aggression "Fuck you!!!" Disgust "Fuck me!!!" Confusion, Curiosity or Disbelief "What the fuck....?" Difficulty "I don't understand this fucking thing." Despair "Fucked again." Good Job "Congratufuckinglations." Desperation "Fuckityfuckfuckfuck." Incompetence "He fucks up everything." Disappointment "This fucking fucker is fucked." Intelligence "He's a fucking genius." Dismissal "Why don't you go outside and play hide-and-go-fuck-yourself?" Displeasure "What the fuck is going on?" Lost "Where the fuck are we?" Disbelief "Unbefuckinglievable!!!" Retaliation "Up your fucking ass!!!" Laziness "He's just a fuck-off." Pain "Fuck ! that hurt." Pleasure "Oooooooh Fuuuuuuck" Love "Do ya Fuck on first dates?" Starting a relationship "Let's fuck now!" Surprise "Fucking hell what was that?" Admiration "Nice fucking tits!" Stupid person "Dumbfuck!" Hate "You Fuck!" Condemnation "Fuck that shit!" Disappointment "That's not fucking fair." A poker hand "A Royal Fuck." Ignorant person "Fuckstick." Denial "I didn't fucking do it." Perplexity "I know fuck all about it." Apathy "Who gives a fuck" or "I don't give a fuck". Confusion "What the fuck just happened?" Resignation "Oh fuck it." Suspicion "Who the fuck are you?" Panic "Let's get the fuck out of here!" Directions "Fuck off." Sex "Let's fuck." Maternal "Motherfucker." Incestuous "Motherfucker." Ambiguity "I'm not so fucking sure." Agreement "Absofuckinglutely." Questioning Authority "Who the fuck do you think you are?" Hypocrisy "Don't you dare fucking swear at me you fucking fucker." Praising the Lord "Jesus Fucking Christ." I have a headache "Go fuck yourself." Refusal "Oh you can fuck right off." Pissed off "Fuck the fucking fuckers!" Be quiet "Shut the fuck up." You're right "Fucking oath." (Australianism) Ostentation "He's just bought a big, fuck-off Mercedes." Sensuousness "She was wearing a pair of red leather, fuck-me boots." Confidence "Fuckin' A." Rage "Motherfucking fuckers!" Impressed "That was fucking amazing." Oral sex after 30 years of marriage "Fuck you!" (while passing each other in the hall) Bewilderment or Ignorance "Fucked if I know." Enraged "I'm gonna fuck you up!" Annoyance "Fuck off, fucker." Annoyance "For fuck's sake." Pissed off "Fuck you, you fucking fuck." Tardiness "It's ten-fucking-thirty already?" Broken down motorcycle "Sir, the fucking fucker has fucked up on me. Professional appraisal of mechanical failure "It's fucked." Calling someone "Oy, fuck face!" Minors "Fucklings." Morons "Fucktards." Thanks "Fuck you very much."

A great piece of swearing in the opening scenes of Way of the Gun (an admittedly poor film) starring Benicio del Toro and Ryan Phillipe. Wierdly,the woman in the scene is now (and possibly was then) the famous comedienne Sarah Silverman:

If I lived in Cranleigh I'd be setting fire to myself in protest.