Rio Has Given Up On Clean Water For Olympics (go.com) 400
iONiUM writes: When bidding to host the 2016 Summer Olympics, Rio de Jaineiro promised the International Olympics Committee that it would eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water, and would fully regenerate the lagoon in which rowing and kayaking events will be held. Now a few months from the start of the games, Rio has given up on keeping those promises. According to an article from Deadspin, "The U.S. will send 48 rowers to Rio, and they will be as forewarned and forearmed as the federation can make them, starting with squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer that will be distributed on the flight to Brazil. Hannafin says the athletes have been asked to get hepatitis A vaccinations and polio boosters and take the oral typhoid vaccine. Their oar handles will be bleached and their boats washed inside and out after each training session or competition. Gear will be laundered at a high enough temperature to kill microbes."
Brazil (Score:2, Insightful)
Kayaking in shit. Brazil. The land of the poor and stupid.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
No need to be stupid to have unsanitary runoff in the lagoon, just poor.
If you're poor enough, you can't even leave.
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And what? Go into the jungle or someone's yard to scavenge for food? The idea of being poor, is that they are just barely striking a balance or trying to, to stop from dying or generally becoming worse off.
If they went walking like you stated, they'd likely end up with more than just muscle pains, considering how filthy the area seems to be.
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"This. All day, this.
We populated the entire damn earth by walking."
There were no electric fences then and you didn't need any Visa either.
Re:What? (Score:5, Funny)
I'd spend a year walking if I had to leave such a shit hole.
You have died of dysentery
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
Kayaking in shit. Brazil. The land of the poor and stupid.
Poor, yes. Stupid, no. The got the Olympics. I'd say they outsmarted everyone.
The stupidity is on the part of the IOC who actually thought that Brazil could achieve that monumental feat without any real change in the situation in Brazil.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
"The stupidity is on the part of the IOC "
No, they got their kickbacks I assure you. So the only people who lose are the athletes.
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The athletes have a choice and get paid.
The only people who lose are the people of Brazil, save the few already rich and powerful who will make money from it.
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Almost every Olympic sport has it's own rules for who can and can't be a competitor; and many of those allow a professional to compete.
The amateur qualification for rowing can be (and likely is) very different from the amateur qualification for track and field.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Funny)
"The stupidity is on the part of the IOC "
No, they got their kickbacks I assure you. So the only people who lose are the athletes.
The IOC should get that money...laundered (at a high enough temperature to kill microbes).
YEAAAAHHHH!!!
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
So the only people who lose are the athletes.
Don't forget the people of Brazil. Hosting the Olympics has pretty much become an open scam [nytimes.com] with only rich politicians, big construction companies, and the IOC profiting from it. Just look at Beijing and Sochi for more examples.
Boston got smart [nytimes.com] after a lot of pushback against their hosting bid. I can only hope that the rest of the US continues that trend. If the US never hosts the Olympics again it would still be too soon.
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I think you're going to start seeing more major Western cities giving a big fat no to bidding on the Olympics, which is going to mean more Sochis and Rios are going to be expected. The IOC is joining FIFA in the unbelievable host city contests. Equally, they should be joining FIFA in prison cells.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Informative)
Boston got smart, but not necessarily because of what has happened to other Olympic hosts, although that's part of it. The outrageous overruns and fraud that was part of the Big Dig tunnel project is still fresh in everyone's minds, and almost no one was held accountable for any of it. They're still having to make major repairs on tunnels that are still practically brand new.
Then on top of that the subway and commuter rail system has been an absolute disaster since last winter. If they can't get mass transit to work for the workforce, you could imagine what would happen with the Olympics in town.
On top of all that, the former Democrat Governor Deval Patrick was given a very well paid role in preparing the Olympic bid for the US and he hired a bunch of his cronies for big money. I think that was the final nail in the coffin. Governor Cadillac Deval started off on the wrong foot as governor by making some very questionable expenditures for his office and vehicle at a time when the economy was hurting.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Informative)
Stupid, no. The got the Olympics
Getting the Olympics is a winning proposition less than 50% of the time. It costs more to put on the olympics than the revenues from them. It only financially works if the facilities are used after the Olympics are over, which means that the facilities have to be built well enough to stand for decades, which means that they cost even more to build. There are lot more Sarajevos than there are Lake Placids.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
If the IOC wasn't corrupt, there should be one location for the Summer Olympics (it should be in Greece, where the ancient Olympics are held), and the Winter Olympics should be held in another location, one that is guaranteed to have snow. Throw a few hundred billion at each location; major airports, venues, hospitals, living facilities, and then it's just the cost of maintenance. No more shopping around for kickbacks for the winning society, and no more need for the IOC in its current form.
Re:Brazil (Score:4)
Let's be clear here. The modern Olympic Movement has about as much to do with the Ancient Olympics as Wicca has to do with the pagan Celtic religion.
Re:Brazil (Score:4, Insightful)
Stupid, no. The got the Olympics
Getting the Olympics is a winning proposition less than 50% of the time. It costs more to put on the olympics than the revenues from them. It only financially works if the facilities are used after the Olympics are over, which means that the facilities have to be built well enough to stand for decades, which means that they cost even more to build. There are lot more Sarajevos than there are Lake Placids.
If you want to look at a money-making Olympics, look to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, which made 101 million dollars [wikipedia.org] despite additional costs for security after 9/11.
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When you consider the size of the investment and the total revenues, I but that is shitty ROI as compared to what else could have been done with that money.
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The New York Times thinks it did [nytimes.com]. Do you have a source that says it didn't, or are you just making shit up?
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Ironically the only two locations in the US to host the Winter Olympics are part of the few places to have ever gotten a return on the games. Salt Lake Cities facilities are used by Team USA for training and are available to the public otherwise and make more than enough to pay for continued operation with enough return left over to pay the construction bonds where they were required.
Though it seems it's easier to make money on the Winter Olympics than it is the summer Olympics as the last place to ever mak
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Yeah, the Olympic Stadium from the London 2012 olympics is being converted to a football stadium at a cost if around £300million and rented out to a top flight football club on a 99 year lease that pays less in rent than the conversion costs, let alone the original construction costs.
Pathetic.
Add to that the bullshit about specifically taxing businesses around the area (with the rationale being "they will benefit from the olympics in a few years, so they should pay more in tax now") and then banning t
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But the money for the olympics is largely given by the host government, and ends up mostly in the hands of private companies.
Winner's curse (Score:3)
The got the Olympics. I'd say they outsmarted everyone.
Apparently you've never heard of the winner's curse [wikipedia.org]. It's not hard to argue that "winning" the right to host the Olympics is something of a Pyrrhic victory [wikipedia.org]. It's really expensive to host the games and relatively few games are profitable for the host country.
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Not if you don't have to do clean up/build out.
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Did they? Between the corruption and the stupid overbuilding of the Olympic site that you'll never make your money back from, the Olympics are looking more and more like a booby prize with every four-year cycle.
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People seem to think that Brazil is a small village. It is a monster 9,000,000 km2 country. There are lots of bad things and lots of good things. The southern states are more livable than most of the US [Oh, by the way, how's Flint doing? Baltimore? Porter Ranch?]. There is no blanket statement to be made of Brazil. Do it and your stupidity will shine.
Life can be [and in my case it is] extremely enjoyable down here. Go educate yourselves [no, no offense taken; I will still welcome you in Brazil by August]
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Considering that the last Olympics; the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, has bedeviled by its own lack of preparations, I'd say the IOC doesn't really care. All that counts is that the IOC gets the money, hookers and blow that they have come to expect, all that counts is how much of these three things can be made available by the contesting cities.
Even the moderately successful Vancouver winter Olympics had the various snow events over an hour a way from any of the other venues, after driving down one of the mos
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Do you mean the sea to sky highway? If so you don't know what you are talking about. They completely rebuilt it for the olympics and it is one of the true success stories of that winter games. Its a dream to drive on now compared to the 2 lane monstrosity that predated it. Trust me, I drove on both. Much improved. You hardly ever hear of anyone having head on crashes or driving over the side anymore, whereas that us
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Poor, yes. Stupid, no. The got the Olympics. I'd say they outsmarted everyone.
Considering the Olympics long history of causing its host cities to hemorrhage money, I would be to differ.
Being an Olympic (of FIFA championship, for that matter) host city is great if you've got money to burn and just want the prestige. But for poorer countries/cities it's usually a losing proposition [npr.org]. You end up with a huge debt at the end and a bunch of facilities that can't be used for anything else.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Interesting)
As much as it pains me to say (I'm a Brazilian), it's not a matter of being poor.
It's just about being stupid. We have had a lot of news about corruption right now and some imbeciles equate corruption with the current leadership. No doubt they are part of the problem, but Rio de Janeiro, for instance has been polluted for decades.
Crime has been somewhat tackled in recent years (probably because of the World Football/Soccer Cup), but results are mediocre, to be frank.
Instead of solving the problems, Politicians are opportunists and want to profit from every failure.
If one looks at a sufficient long time period -- say 20 years -- , it can be seen that things improved. But it all happens at snail pace.
Other people fixed their problems: Japan, Korea, Germany... we could have done it, too. But we get lost in Political bickering, we fail at bringing education to the masses and now we must face a lot of shame when inviting everyone to a party here.
Maybe we need to go through all this, maybe it's karma, I don't know... it's not like other countries don't have also their share of problems.
But it's quite a shame, indeed...
snope, I didn't hear... (Score:5, Insightful)
The parts that George Takai (aka Sulu) didn't read...
The origin of the pesticide theory was, surprise surprise, a small physicians’ group that campaigns against pesticides. The group hasn’t done any epidemiology to demonstrate that people exposed to the pesticide are more likely to have babies with microcephaly; it has simply laid out an argument. The mainstream groups, looking at this problem holistically, have said there’s much better evidence that mosquitoes are hurting people than the evidence (and there’s no evidence, really) that the stuff killing mosquitoes is hurting people.
... and...
All of this information is readily available to any genuine scientist looking dispassionately at the potential causes of the Zika virus outbreak or the rise in malformations in Brazil. Also readily available is the knowledge that the use of pyriproxifen is driven by WHO recommendations and not the marketing activity of any multinational or other corporation.
The potential human health consequences of discouraging the use of pyriproxyfen in drinking water storage and other mosquito-reduction programs is catastrophic with potential deaths and serious disease from otherwise avoidable malaria, dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases numbered in at least the hundreds of thousands. If these reports and suggestions are motivated by anything other than ignorance and poor scholarship they are deserving of the most strident condemnation.
Journalists covering this story would do well to research the background of those making and reporting the claims as the underlying story and potential public health consequences may be far more newsworthy than the current headlines.
... and ...
* Neither Monsanto nor our products have any connection to the Zika virus or microcephaly.
* Monsanto does not manufacture or sell Pyriproxyfen.
* Monsanto does not own Sumitomo Chemical Company. However, Sumitomo Chemical Company is one of our business partners in the area of crop protection.
* Glyphosate is not connected in any way to the Zika virus or microcephaly.
* GMOs have no role in the Zika virus or microcephaly.
Re:Brazil (Score:5, Insightful)
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I wouldn't want to row (Score:5, Insightful)
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I get yout point, I wouldn't want to be a part of that scene either, but for most (all?) of these athletes, this is their livelihood, their passion, their years-long focus. Putting myself in their shoes, to say I might get sick is probably not what I want to hear but I bet I'd still participate.
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This disease infested Olympics brought to you by Coca Cola, McDonald's, and other fine companies [rio2016.com] who don't give a crap if the Olympians have to compete in crap.
Re:I wouldn't want to row (Score:4, Insightful)
I would say I'm going to boycott the Olympics, but to be honest, I ignore them every time they're held...
Re:I wouldn't want to row (Score:5, Insightful)
So I'm an athlete. I train hard for a decade or more. 10 hours a day. 6 days a week.
I get one shot every 4 years. Depending on my sport, i may get just 2 shots, sometimes Im lucky enough to be in a sport that i may get 3, 4 shots at the Olympics.
And you're saying that giving up one of my 2 shots in a lifetime is an easy choice, just snap my fingers. More important to give a middle finger and give up my dream and make that sacrifice almost useless.
This is why athletes go. This is why team management lets the athletes go. Yeah, it's the IOC, but dealing with the IOC is a requirement to be in the Olympics. Necessary evil.
IOC is Corrupt (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember listening to an interview on Mike & Mike (ESPN radio) where they talked to some official try to explain away all of the problems with the Rio water supply and how athletes got sick in a rowing event in the water. The Rio water was fine, she explained and any problems would be rectified. Her doublespeak was so thick that only a complete moron couldn't hear that she was a grade "A" liar.
The reality is the water is so dirty that you might as well swim in raw sewage. Does the Olympic Committee care? Nope. They got their bribes and they are happy.
Re:IOC is Corrupt (Score:5, Funny)
Athletes don't really swim in Rio. They just go through the motions.
Re:IOC is Corrupt (Score:5, Insightful)
I remember listening to an interview on Mike & Mike (ESPN radio) where they talked to some official try to explain away all of the problems with the Rio water supply and how athletes got sick in a rowing event in the water. The Rio water was fine, she explained and any problems would be rectified. Her doublespeak was so thick that only a complete moron couldn't hear that she was a grade "A" liar.
The reality is the water is so dirty that you might as well swim in raw sewage. Does the Olympic Committee care? Nope. They got their bribes and they are happy.
One article I read said that Brazil actually plans to have boats patrolling during the events to pick up trash to try (emphasis on try) and make sure outcomes aren't affected. One bad time due to some trash could completely change who medals and could create some serious drama. Some competitors aren't even flying into Rio until right before their events to limit their exposure to the water and any potential health hazards. And have you seen pictures of the water? It pretty much is raw sewage. The people that accepted Rio's bid for the Olympics must have been hanging out with the same group that decided it would be a good idea to have the World Cup in the Middle East during the middle of summer.
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Re: IOC is Corrupt (Score:2)
Who hasn't been called an SJW, in this day and age?
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You bet the Olympic Committee cares.... In so far as the media is covering it. Otherwise they would just be minding their own business, cashing the checks and arranging the kickbacks.
Look, anybody who thought Rio was a good idea for the summer Olympics from a security and safety perspective has obviously never been there. It's not the worst situation I've seen down in South America, but it's pretty bad for a halfway civilized industrial country and not something you are going to be able to "clean up" eno
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Next Olympics in Iraq if the bribes are high enough
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If the bribes were high enough, they'd be hosting it at Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station.
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Can you bribe the IOC to host the game somewhere else?
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Offer her a glass or two of water from Rio to drink....
If there was ever a reason to boycott the Olympics (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:If there was ever a reason to boycott the Olymp (Score:4, Informative)
Making a statement... (Score:5, Insightful)
This might be the Olympic Year for countries, big and small, to make a statement to the IOC and the world. It's not just an issue for Rio, but other countries as well. And while it would suck for Olympic Athletes to skip this year, it would draw attention to an issue that even the US faces at home because of greed. Asking for clean drinking water isn't some special request that only the privileged should get, we need to consider it a human right.
The Olympics will only be there for a year, the change that the Olympics can have might have a chance to linger way, way longer. So, just how much is a Gold Medal worth compared to generations of clean drinking water?
A new Olympic event? (Score:3)
Shit Lagoon Rowing Competition! Who will get the gold!
Re:A new Olympic event? (Score:5, Funny)
Shit Lagoon Rowing Competition! Who will get the gold!
Who will get the brown?
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Who will get the clap?
Re:A new Olympic event? (Score:5, Funny)
Economic Fredom Index on Brazil (Score:5, Informative)
The Index of Economic Freedom [heritage.org] says:
"Brazil's limited experiment with market-oriented reforms has been uneven and even derailed in some areas. The state's presence in such sectors as energy, financial services, and electricity remains extensive. The legacy of decades of central planning, state meddling in economic activity continues even where it has demonstrably failed, and the weak rule of law further undermines economic progress."
"Graft remains endemic, and Brazilians disapprove of President Dilma Rousseff's policies on corruption and crime. In 2014, a former director of state-owned Petrobas accused more than 40 politicians, including one minister and three governors, in a massive kickback investigation. Brazilâ(TM)s judiciary is inefficient and subject to political and economic influence. The court system is overburdened, and contract disputes can be lengthy and complex."
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And here I thought Zika was going to be the biggest stink... They couldn't clean up ONE body of water over half a decade??
Graft remains endemic
Endemic can't be emphasized enough. Graft and corruption are culture-wide in Latin America, not just Brazil. Native Latinos - usually by no fault of their own initially - are programmed from birth to just expect graft and corruption in all facets of life.
Corrupt police forces that oppress and/or extort. Militaries that become the tools of dictators to oppress. Ill
Why are the Olympics held in shitholes? (Score:4, Interesting)
Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then? All they are doing is highlighting what an embarassment their country is. It's crazy. Any why would a healthy, fit, above average jock want to risk his or her health or even life, by going to this shithole?
I don't think USA Olympic athletes are covered by health insurance, because 'Murica. If they even have Obamacare, they are probably lucky. If you get a serious illness that could take years to eradicate, our athletes might be begging on the streets to make their doctor payments. And nobody is putting a sickly bronze-winner on the box of Wheaties.
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The next Olympics should be held in Flint, Michigan.....
It follows a familiar pattern.
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The costs of throwing the party are so out of control ($50B Russia? For 2 freaking weeks?!) that no country with politicians that are somewhat accountable wants to place a bid. That leaves a bunch of authoritarian regimes that want to "show the world how great we are" by slapping a quick coat of paint on everything and controlling press coverage for two weeks. The big cheese gets a feather in their cap and the IOC gets their bribes.
The situation is coming to a head though. First with Russia that couldn't fi
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Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then?
because they *think* its a good way to boost international prestige if they can mostly pull it off and with it international investment.
and while the host city is usually screwed the host country seems to benifit when its successful.
All they are doing is highlighting what an embarassment their country is
No quite the contrary. Usually there is enough wealth concentration and concentration of political power in third world shit holes, that the PTBs can make it happen and make a small corner of their yard look nice while the population suffers, and is displaced.
Any why would a healthy, fit, above average jock want to risk his or her health or even life, by going to this shithole
Because if you
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Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then? All they are doing is highlighting what an embarassment their country is.
There actually are reasons why this happens, but your remarks are very valid. Basically first world cities no longer wish to bid on the Olympics because they bleed money. The last Winter Olympics to turn a profit for the host were the 2002 ones in Salt Lake. The last Summer Olympics to turn a profit for the host city were the 1996 ones in Atlanta. If you are old enough to remember the 1996 Summer Olympics the IOC lost their crap over how "commercial" they were and made a point of not calling them the "b
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You have your years mixed up. Athens 2004, Sydney 2000.
In the case of Sydney, they built a number of purpose built facilities, on the western fringe of the city. The ideology being that western Sydney is a growth area and if we build it, they will come. The problem being that the main stadium has been largely a white elephant and fina
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Why do third-world shitholes even bid for the Olympics then?
Because all the smart countries have finally sussed up (after 30 years) that hosting the Olympics is a white elephant.
Let's recap :
2016 Rio - corrupt shithole with rampant poverty
2014 Sochi - Russia is a corrupt shithole
2012 London - OK, these next two I can't find much to fault them with...
2010 Vancouver - horrific bigfoot pogrom (look it up on the internet)
2008 Bejing - have you tasted their air? Also, a fine example of a repressive government, May 35th 1989, anyone? Oh, and corruption, or i
Who made this decision? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who made this decision? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is the IOC that stupid or is this just a corrupt best bribe wins scenario?
Yes.
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Is the IOC that stupid or is this just a corrupt best bribe wins scenario?
Yes.
The should call Bill Murray (Score:2)
That is pretty much nonsense (Score:3)
There are about 6.4 million people living in Rio. They know what they can and cannot do safely. Copy that and you are done. Hint: Washing your hands before eating and not drinking unboiled tap-water pretty much covers it.
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Hint: Washing your hands before eating and not drinking unboiled tap-water pretty much covers it.
Going for a swim in sewage lake is pretty much a bad idea too. So is rowing.
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And for fucks sake, don't swim (or boat) in any open bodies of water. One droplet on your lips and it's time for dysentery.
In the third world, it's often a good idea to wear a surgical mask and eye protection anywhere near open water. It's not perfect protection, but it's better than nothing.
So change the venue (Score:4, Informative)
The U.S. will send 48 rowers to Rio, and they will be as forewarned and forearmed as the federation can make them, starting with squeeze bottles of hand sanitizer that will be distributed on the flight to Brazil.
Hand sanitizer will do absolutely nothing to keep athletes from being infected with pathogens from the water. If they cannot deal with the problem then they need to change the venue. If that is not in Brazil then so be it.
Hannafin says the athletes have been asked to get hepatitis A vaccinations and polio boosters and take the oral typhoid vaccine. Their oar handles will be bleached and their boats washed inside and out after each training session or competition. Gear will be laundered at a high enough temperature to kill microbes."
All fine but if the water is filled with fecal matter or other pathogens there are countless other ways they can get sick, many of which can affect their athletic performance. Hard to win a gold medal when you are puking your guts out from exposure to pathogens.
At least no Smell-A-Vision (Score:2)
crime rates (Score:2)
According to online stats, maybe up to 10,000 athletes attend the Olympic Games. I wonder how many will be held up at gun point and robbed if any are silly enough to venture outside their sanitized zones of the city?
I'm sure there'll be some interesting heaadlines out of this Olympics, for sure...
Should of been Chicago! we have good water (Score:2, Insightful)
Should of been Chicago! we have good water and Less crime.
Also good food and beer!!!
Eurgh (Score:2)
What a mess - Beijing Summer and Sochi Winter Olympics despite all the human rights problems with China and Russia. Preparations for Athens were a joke.
And now all these problems surrounding Brazil. I don't want to "ban" countries from bidding, but the IOC (FIFA, etc) really need to get their acts together in only awarding major sporting events to countries that have proven how they will host, not just fantasies.
I live in Rio (Score:4, Informative)
I moved to Rio 6 months ago from New Jersey. (Yeah, I know, NJ is the land where every puddle has its own rainbow.) I know 4 other people who moved here from the US within the last 2 years. Not one of us has gotten sick. Okay, I'll stop with the anecdotal evidence now. How about, this place is CLEANER than New York City. How many folks swim in the Hudson or the East River? I see fruit dropped from trees, yet there's WAY fewer bugs, and I've yet to see a single rat. The water doesn't smell; people here swim in it all the time, yet the hospitals aren't overflowing with sick folks. It's true, all the locals drink filtered water, but that's NOT connected to the lake. It's called Lagoa BTW, for lagoon in portuguese. The tap water is tainted because poor people break into the water mains feeding the city to get free water, and they don't exactly make good plumbers. Try applying statistics and I'll bet that more athletes will be compromised by the vaccines and the toxic chemicals in the hand "sanitizers" than would get sick from the water in the lagoon. If they are so afraid, then take some antibiotics while here, a few yogurts (or kefir) when done, and call it good. But all that "Oh God it's a shithole!" is far from the truth - you're just regurgitating what you read in the sensationalist media. Stop playing telephone and ask someone who's been there - Rio is Fine; far cleaner than many other cities I've seen.
Re:I live in Rio (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm so going to get buried by mods who disagree rather than marked informative, but here goes.
I moved to Rio 6 months ago from New Jersey. (Yeah, I know, NJ is the land where every puddle has its own rainbow.) I know 4 other people who moved here from the US within the last 2 years. Not one of us has gotten sick.
How often do you swim in the rivers/lakes there, or do other water sports?
Okay, I'll stop with the anecdotal evidence now. How about, this place is CLEANER than New York City. How many folks swim in the Hudson or the East River?.
Nobody is trying to have an Olympic event in the Hudson or the East River.
Stop playing telephone and ask someone who's been there - Rio is Fine; far cleaner than many other cities I've seen.
Maybe so, but that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that the lakes/rivers are so polluted that you shouldn't be having athletic competitions in them.
Re:I live in Rio (Score:4, Insightful)
All you have provided is individual anecdotes and irrelevant analogies.
The only thing that matters is the actual level of contamination in the affected body of water, as measured by scientific instruments, and an objective risk analysis of pathogenicity based on those measurements. In plain English, your stories about people swimming and fruit dropping from trees means fuck all.
The water was already tested many months ago, and the levels of harmful bacteria and viruses were deemed too high to be safe:
http://espn.go.com/olympics/st... [go.com]
At that time, some people even suggested that athletes competing in these water events should arrive in Rio early, train in the contaminated environment, get sick with the local diseases, and hopefully build up immunity before the Olympics. That, in my view, is an insane proposition.
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How about, this place is CLEANER than New York City. How many folks swim in the Hudson or the East River?
Thousands, [si.com] actually. [nycswim.org]
Re:I live in Rio (Score:4, Insightful)
...and I'll bet that more athletes will be compromised by the vaccines and the toxic chemicals in the hand "sanitizers" than would get sick from the water...
OK. You almost made it. You were sounding plausible, up until the crack-pot sentence above.
Vaccines—unhealthy—Really?
"Toxic chemicals in the hand 'sanitizers'..."?!? Again—Really? Well, OK, the active ingredient in hand sanitizers is usually ethanol – booze. Yes, that's toxic, but is sold as a casual social lubricant just about everywhere on the planet – for humans' internal consumption. The active ingredient in a few others might be isopropanol – AKA 'rubbing alcohol'. It's more expensive, so less common in 'hand sanitizers', but is what your physician uses to clean the skin before giving you a shot.
FTA: The PR flak's suggestion of hand-sanitizer use on athletes' way to the Olympic Games was quite comical.
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"Whatever is in them". - They contain ethanol. Ethanol will happily kill bacteria on contact. Bacteria do not become resistant to ethanol. They just die.
Saw this one coming (Score:2)
terceira base (Score:5, Funny)
"Hey, is this where the water polo events are being held?"
"No, no, read sign, estupido! It say 'water polio'!"
Swell. (Score:2)
Re:News For Nerds? (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree it's interesting,
Well, there you have it! News for nerds means things nerds find interesintg. It doesn't mean nothing but kernel releases, cool hacks (we've not had nearly enough of these recently) and exploits.
Re:News For Nerds? (Score:4, Insightful)
yaelk/Whipslash, I'm trying really hard not to complain here
How difficult is it to not hit submit? How many of you are in there?
Re: (Score:2)
I'll take some blame, I up voted it on the firehose. I found it to be an interesting story, and while I didn't give any thought to the comments it would engender, there have been some interesting notes about Rio's current economic state.
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Affirmative action and bribery (Score:2)
Why can't we have the Olympics or the World Cup in a city that doesn't have to spend years and years building up its infrastructure? It doesn't do much for the economies of these countries, and the stadiums fall into disuse after the games anyway.
Although most games occur in "rich" countries that can afford it, the IOC often feels the need for "affirmative action" to let "poor-er" nations into the rotation (it's basically a popularity vote among IOC members to select from supposedly pre-vetted candidates that pony up the $150K fee). Rio is getting about USD$1.5B to "help" them host the games.
Also, in general, it's much easier to shake down money from construction companies to bribe IOC members, if your country is swimming in corruption already. If
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Now where to permanently place the winter games....