>>>>>>>>>>>Moving away from doping, how about throwing? As in deliberetly throwing matches?
>>>>>>>>>>>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444226904577562112515755348.html
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>Very un-Olympian, I'm glad they got booted.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>OTOH it's good to see some aspects of the Olympics are 100% reliable: "Still, Locog and the IOC both said tickets to the Tuesday matches wouldn't be refunded."
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>They should be embarrassed. Of course, Olympic committee potentates long ago proved themselves incapable of embarrassment. If you saw their compensation packages or travel arrangements it would make you sick to your stomach. Wouldn't that money be better spent on development programs for young athletes?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>I pass through the West end of London every morning at the moment and see the limousines parked up with the rather haggard looking Olympic potentates being loaded into them. Most look like they've ever done much more than jog to the bar.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>So true. There was a good cartoon in The New Yorker recently (as there always is, or a dozen of them) with a flabby guy sitting on the examination table in a doctor's office. "Is there any history of exercise in your family?" the doctor asks him.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>For your friday pleasure.
>>>>>
>>>>>LOL
>>>>>
>>>>>I have been watching the Olympics the way I watch most sports now. I set the recorder, wait an hour or hour and a half after the start, and then start watching. That way I can fast forward through all the commercials. And boy, are there a lot of them. I have not measured but bet commercials take up close to 15 minutes every hour.
>>>>
>>>>Well I'm not watching it but it is on the BBC here so no adverts at all. I guess NBC want to make their investment back. Your point would be a useful reminder to wave at people here who think the BBC should be funded by advertising and we shouldn't have a license fee.
>>>
>>>You are a clever man, Nick, but you are not going to get me to criticize the BBC. I think they're terrific.
>>>
>>>Yeah, obviously NBC needs to make its investment back, or at least not lose too much of it. That said, there is a noticeable focus on the web content. Even if you are in the dinosaur business (dominance of American airwaves by three networks) you have to recognize changing reality.
>>
>>I wasn't trying to entrap you mike :-)
>>
>>By here I meant people in the UK.
>
>Consider it clarified. No problem.
>
>Why aren't you watching? There have been some terrific cycling events, plus your city has been brilliant on the world stage.

Press are reporting that The Who and McCartney will be playing at the closing ceremony so I'll probably mute that bit. Maybe put on a bit of Elgar instead..