Rag-Doll

No worries mate. And BTW, I'm more of a salaryman than a fat cat banker.

Seems Uncle Sam has come back to the party with his cheque book. Phew! That was a close one, now, where did I park my porche?

Absolutely there will be a lot of pian - that is really unfortunate. Being the first, we at Bear were left in a far better position than many of our Lehamn brothers (and sisters). A lot of people losing houses they couldn't afford in the first place too. Thursday - who is next? Good question.

Why am I always the only guy defending the establishment? All this "no sympathy, they deserve it" BS is so misguided. No one was complaining when Joe Average was finally able to realize his dream of owning his own house. Perhaps he should not have been allowed to, but no one was complaining at the time. No one was complaining when the share market was going up and up and up with consequential benefits to pension funds and superannuation funds and private wealth generally. The governments certainly do well out of the increase tax revenue. The wealth generated over the past 10 years was enj

Give yourself a bit of time though to get through Narita, buy a ticket, ride to Haneda and then check in for the flight north. Even though the buses are very regular and always leave on time, the traffic can be pretty bad. you would want to give yourself at least 4 hours from landing time at Narita and departure time at Haneda. It isn't like going from the international terminal to the domestic terminal at Aust airports!

Not good at all, but it has been on the cards for a while not really a big surprise. When Bear went down we all thought that was a bad situation, but at least we were rescued; no chance here though.

After the dissapointment of not seeing the Beijing Games collapse in a smoggy heap of overbearing police brutality - typical of the Communists to go and do something good when you expect them to do the exact opposite - I'm going to go positive for the London games and predict that they'll be the best ever. Forget about the problems with Whembley, the Tube, the NHS, the railways, Heathrow, the Millenium Dome and, well just about most public services in the UK... 2012 will be a magnificant success and all done very tastefully as well in a kind of West End musical sort of way.

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver The Sun whips up a similar storm when Engurland plays Germany. I guess the WA paper is about the same quality as The Sun. I doubt thought that it would have the wit that the Sun does for head lines and puns stuff. Some really are very clever.

Tubbs, I don't know, seeing who can through a 19th cannon ball the furtherest seems an odd endevour to devote your life to. Maybe it is just too subtle for me.

Speaking of fit bodies, there are definitely some sports I prefer to watch regardless of medal prospects or which country is involved. Preferred ogle sports: Diving Synchronized swimming - sorry Indoor Volleyball (but not the Chinese team - yeech!) Triathlon - nice bums! Pole Vault Hepthalon What's on the other channel sports: Weightlifting Any event involving throwing a weighted object Any event involving throwing, punching or otherwise rendering your opponent senseless Gymnastics - despite what the how old the Chinese reckon their girls are, it just doesn'

Originally Posted By: thursday Australians vow revenge on cocky Britons(08-19 12:07) Australia's Olympic Committee president, aghast at the sight of Britain above his country in the Olympic medals table, has vowed revenge -- if not now then on British soil in 2012. "They're certainly serving it up to me,'' John Coates told a roomful of downcast Australian journalists when asked how to cope with gloating British fans and officials. "Their new-found cockiness has got some substance to it,'' he added. Britain, Olympic hosts in 2012, were in third place in the medals table this morning, o

Perhaps the stupidest sport at the Olympics would have to be hand ball. It just looks dumb. Sort of like a back yard knock-about game arranged at someone's Phys Ed class. Looking forward to the Us v Boomers basketball game. Not that the outcome is much in doubt, but it will be good to see the local boys up against the NBA's best.

Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver I have watched very little of the olympics as well. It just doesn't grab me at all. Most Pointless Olympic sport....gotta be Synchronised swimming for sure There are more than a few sports that kind of only exist because they're in the olympics. Hammer throw, shot put, discus , geez just about all of the athletic field events and more than a few of the swimming events all seem pretty contrived. They're really only survivors of the strange list of events from the early days like swimming obstacle course and live pigeon shooting and other equally odd

Originally Posted By: Mamabear That is just SAD Mantas!! Don't get me wrong - I am not rushing home from work to stick the telly on, but when I am home I keep the telly going in the background so I can catch up on the highs and lows for all, and the big wins for Aus. Same here. I don't rush home because the telly is on at work and the kids at home make too much noise. I stay at work and get better coverage! I "heart" Olympics!

Originally Posted By: Rag-Doll Originally Posted By: joshnii Wasn't it always counted by number of golds first? Probably, but if you're willing to change the rules, it is amazing what you can produce. If using totals means we finish in front of the Brits, then let's use totals! From today's The Age Quote: US set for overall victory in medal tallyJacquelin Magnay | August 19, 2008 THE United States is poised to claim a stunning overall victory at the Beijing Olympics, even though the host nation has won nearly double the number of gold medals. So far, China has won th

Originally Posted By: joshnii Wasn't it always counted by number of golds first? Probably, but if you're willing to change the rules, it is amazing what you can produce. If using totals means we finish in front of the Brits, then let's use totals!

Depends how you measure the tally 2Pints. China and Aust seem to do it by the number of gold medals, but some of the US websites seem to do it by totals, in which case the forces of good (i.e. the US and Aust) are ahead of their respective evil opponents, China and Team GB.

In the old style pools the outside lanes used to be more affacted by back wash from the waves hitting the sides of the pool. Might not be much of a problem these days, but when you're measuring to 100th's of a second, it might matter. How about Bolt's 100m? Really don't understand how he could be doing anything different to what Lewis was doing 20 years ago but still run more than .1 of a second faster. Amazing.

Nice one Mantas.

The Olympics are definitely China's coming out and what they have shown is that the new China the same as the old China, except richer.

Here is a strong contender for the Competing Realities Event. Quote: CHINA has enforced a media blackout on the saga of the faked Olympic Opening Ceremony song, and all references to the story have been removed from Chinese internet sites. Beijing's Olympics organisers admitted yesterday that nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, who was seen by millions of people around the world singing during the ceremony, was actually miming a song that had been pre-recorded by another girl. The show's musical director revealed that the real singer, seven-year-old Yang Peiyi was replaced by government or

Quote: VETERAN Australian shooter Russell Mark battled hard for a medal but finished fifth as a judging controversy enveloped the Olympic shooting competition yesterday. Chinese competitor Hu Binyuan won bronze in the men's double trap event but few in the stands could truly say he deserved it. On at least three occasions in the tense final stage, Hu was awarded a hit by the Chinese judges despite clearly missing the target. On each occasion there seemed little doubt, the crowd stopped roaring on their compatriot and hushed as murmurs of disbelief spread through the grandstand. The co

From John Birmingham's blog in the Age. Can't help feeling that somewhere, deep down inside, this is exactly the sentiment the Chinese are hoping for from the rest of the world. Welcome Glorious Chinese Overlords August 13, 2008 | John Birmingham My fortune cookie says it is time to abandon our obese American masters for newer, fitter and more golden Chinese future. Thanks to the contributions of the many, patient, relentless and occasionally indecipherable Chinese bloggers who have made their temporary home here at the Limpy blog, I have seen the light. Well, that and th

Originally Posted By: Ezorisu Off to "slave labour camp #9" with him (and his family) to make Motorola cellular phones or Sony Playstations for export! It probably is something like that. In the papers here they've gone on a bit about the sports development program in China and how there is somethng like 6,000,000 kids in special sports primary schools who mix schooling in with pretty intense sports training, the best of these kids join something like 360,000 kids in sports high schools and so on until China ends up with a handful (only 600+) at these Olympics who qualify for internatio