Mantas

The local girl that trains with my kids doesn't have a physical disability at all. She has a mental disability.

A local girl will be swimming in that. Should do well too.

I have olympic withdraws already

Watched a Usain Bolt interview last night. I think I like that guy.

That was the whole point. I certainly don't care how you guys make up an olympic team or how many medals you get or what your official tittle is. English, Brittish, U.K ish......pfft The Man in Japan must give a crap though, if he felt the need to get out his red marker pen and correct my post. My original post was a compliment, remember. Paddy are the rowers from Northern Ireland that won silver and competed for Britain

British. Quite right. Quite right! England for the commonwealth games. Great Britain for the Olympics and all run by UK Sport. Right, got it. Awefully sorry ol chap. Hang on better knock a couple of medals of the tally because Paddy doesn't come from either England or Great Britain.

Nah nah na nana naaaa nana na naaa na na naaaahh Hey ay Jude....

No, not really. Not compared to the UK. Towns in Oz are really just somewhere to go get your petrol, beer and food. Not always in that order either

Must be very proud to be english bag. They have done so well.

Just who's got it so damm good? I've just had my worst year in business ever and so has just about everyone I speak to! Retail, manufacturing and construction industries have been decimated in my region. Finding work is hard, getting payment for it is even harder. I have three friends that have lost their local jobs in the construction industry. Two of them now fly in and out of WA mining towns, the other one drives 8 hours away to a NSW mining town for work. I have another friend in retail that doesn't know how he'll make through the next year (he's been in business 16 years). There have bee

I didn't think you'd answer that one. I don't dispute most of what you say. It's just that I don't think people like Jones have as much influence over the broader population as you suggest. I just don't see them as pied poppers, dragging along the masses behind them. The mad monk will fall on his sword. People are already seeing through all the fear mongering. Gillards popularity is rising. Give the people some credit.

First let me state again that Alan Jones is a clown (a very entertaining clown, hence the large audience). A simple question for you GN. If you had the power to remove Alan Jones from media commentary. Would you?

As a kid I remember shopping with my Nanna in the same street that is practically derelic now. It was thriving back then. The reason for the decline is obvious here. Two massive shopping malls that I have witnessed grow 6 fold in size. Working mums, busy families and the need for convenience has killed the main street. It's a way more efficient way to shop but I hate malls. Probably because I work in them a lot. It amazes me the effort to detail that the management with go to to ensure the perfect 'shopping experience' for the punter.

Dead as a door nail here. Every year some council member comes up with a new way to revive the area. It's just like you said, half the shops closed, the other half selling very cheap crap. At least in the UK the main street building have some kind of charm to them, out here a lots of them are 1970's concrete and glass boxes.

No, not really. Just because someone get a bit of a following doesn't automatically elevate them to Messiah or denigrate the listener to Swill. I know a lot of people who listen to Alan Jones, they are the same people who watch Q & A, Media watch, Insight and other reputable media outlets. Alan Jones is a F@@@wit. That's a given, but he adds balance to the spectrum and that's a sign of a healthy democracy, You just can't put a muzzle on a prominent media outlet/ or personality because you don't agree with what they are saying. You've been in Japan too long

Whoaa? Great opening line. That's a failrly elitest view for someone obviously from the left side of politics. You would get a gernsey on Jiohn Howard's dream team. Lazyness and dumbness aren't the same thing. Most people know what's going on but couldn't be arsed to do anything about it or even form an opinion. Probably just as bad I know. I agree with what yo say about the media. Commercial media that is. They are not a community service. They are a business selling a product just like any other business. I just don't know where you get this idea that everyone except me is as "dumb as

Yep, it's a bit like junk food. We all know it's crap but eat it anyway. I don't think there are too many people here that lap up whatever's served to them. Aussies generally have a healthy dose of scepticizm. That's why politicians are greeted in public with boo's and cheers rather than cheers and pomm Pomms like in the US

As a Parent that spends a good deal of his waking day running kids around to sporting commitments, I totally agree. If Australia's top coaches want to get a $250 000 bonus for coaching Chinese (or Brittish) athletes to a gold medal, then good luck to them.

MB I get the feeling that a lot of people here are glad that sporting success has been relegated down the list of the countries priorities. I think after decades of sport, sport, sport we are suffering a bit sporting fatigue.

Doing better than Australia, just. Questions being asked here. What went 'wrong'. I think I know the answer. Everyone else was faster, stronger, higher, longer, better.

I think a lots of Aussies don't realize that what they are watching/reading is a 'product'. Therefore the content needs to be entertaining. Outrage is normally a good seller. Power prices, Asylum seekers , politicians wasting money, that sort of thing. I think we are fairing a lot better than other countries though. The ABC has a lot of interesting unbiased news content like Insight, Q &A, Four corners, Foreign correspondent etc. It's just that they can't compete with all the other trivial camp on commercial networks.

Probably pumped full of steroids too.

Not from me. Others definitely. Pretty bold statement to come out and blatantly accuse someone of being a drug cheat. i hope she's as clean as a whistle. I hope we can just except that a 16 year old Chinese school girl swims faster than a 28 year old Male veteren gold medalist in the same evet because of umm.. better training techniques.

I think the extreme scrutiny of the result is valid, given china's extensive state sponsored drug cheating program that went on in previous years, Perhaps it shouldn't be done in such a public fashion though. Also you would have to be naive to think that the chemists doing the drug screening are somehow automatically more advanced than the chemists doing the cheating just because they are on the side of good. No sour grapes just a sad reality of modern sport.

Aren't some of the wealthiest people in the world Russian?