'With Glowing Hearts' is 2010 Olympics slogan

[deja vu]

Smitty:
A bit of a change, but some one up in top complained about some of the truckers hauling extra trailers of MORE snow, was complaining that was not as clean as expected. Good gosh when you are on a machine digging up snow you can once in a while pick up a bit of dirt. What did they expect---the snow to be even better then at Whistler in its prime?

Another brilliant plan by Campbell. I saw a tape on the news and that is really dirty snow. Looked more like the stuff dumped behind ice and curling rinks or the last of the melting snow at the end of winter.

Forget Whister, they need to switch it to Mt. Washington, which is way north of Victoria. At least the snow there is fresh, white, and fluffy. Like Mother Nature intended it to be, not the road kill version Campbell is using.

[CielOnTap]

Call VANOC's plan: 'Environmental Impact Games'
February 04, 2010
James Keller
The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER (Feb 4, 2010)
Like the finest of athletes, organizers of the Vancouver Olympics set out with grand plans for 2010 and a goal of nothing short of the greenest Games in history.

The Vancouver Games were to be carbon neutral, feature venues would be built to the strictest environmental standards, green technology of the future would be showcased and the Games would be held accountable through regular, transparent reporting -- all while fans, sponsors and athletes were to be encouraged to do their part. And like even the finest Olympic athletes, the goals have seen victory and they have seen defeat.

Successes have been mixed with criticisms, qualifications and some unexpected obstacles for the organizing committee, known as VANOC. In the successes column is Vancouver's athletes village, a financial millstone for the city but championed by organizers as a bold new standard for future Olympics to emulate.http://www.thespec.com/Sports/article/717248

The community centre with the platinum LEED designation-->name? British Columbia is part of the Cascadia Branch of the Canada Green Building Council http://www.cagbc.org/cagbc/index.htm

~~~~~~
Remember my comment in an older post about how expensive the medals must have been to make, given the going rate for gold? I had assumed that new gold was used for the first place metals; recycled precious metals did not come to mind. That is one "green" practice!

Old TVs become gold medals
Recycled metals crafted into prizes
February 04, 2010
Bloomberg News
TORONTO (Feb 4, 2010)
Canadian speedskater Kristina Groves and freestyle skier Jenn Heil may be wearing waste from recycled Sony Trinitrons around their necks if they reach the podium at the Vancouver Olympics this month.

The 2010 Olympic and Paralympic medals are the first containing metal salvaged from televisions, circuit boards, monitors and electronic waste. The so-called urban ore was supplied by Teck Resources, Canada's largest base-metals producer, which provided gold, silver and copper used to make the undulating, laser-etched prizes.http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/717221

[deja vu]

Opinion is growing that the $10-million Canada pavilion in downtown Vancouver is an "embarrassment" to the country -- and a "rinky-dink" effort by the 2010 host country. "It looks like a temporary tent," said North Vancouver resident Alastair Campbell, in town to take a peek on Wednesday.

"I'm very disappointed. It's not very impressive. It seems the federal government forgot they had to have a pavilion," he said. "It was done at the last minute. To showcase this to the world is embarrassing. They've let go a major opportunity. It's being upstaged by other countries and provinces. This is really rinky-dink."


http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/201 ... story.html


Honestly, what did they expect? That Harper would hide his true colors and try to pretend he is proud of Canada. He has done everything he can to show he barely tolerates Canadians. You get what you voted for, and I'm glad I never voted for him.

McCracken said that no media preview has been allowed because technicians are still working on the wiring.

More than likely it's a case of they don't want Canadians to see how really bad it is in there until it is too late. Vanoc is no better than Harper and his crew. Wanted BC flowers so they go really far south to get them, wanted BC wines so brings in other countries wines, wanted to showcase Canadian talent so brings in a majority of artists from other countries, truck in dirty snow, and then there is their version of an Olympic film. I just saw a short clip of it on the morning news and just when I thought Vanoc had hit rock bottom they did this. The Jewish Community is up in arms and screaming mad. These are the Winter Olympics but for some reason that defies logic they included clips from the Hitler Summer Games. No saluting but there is no mistaking where the clip came from.

I will make sure I have plenty of batteries for the remote so I can channel surf and avoid the embarrassment Harper and Vanoc have brought to Vancouver. They really had a chance to showcase BC and Canada and instead they made one big mess that no one can be proud of. The one thing Canadians are proud of are their athletes. It's just a shame they have to be showcased during this man made disaster.

[Smitty]

The posts by deja vu, CielOn Tap & others REALLY PUT YOUR MIND TO THINKING of all the screw-ups. I remember some yrs before the Olympics were held in Calgary, the head man of the Banff National park came to me asking if the olymic speedskating ice could be put near a new artivicial ice place.

Told him it was impossible as that along would block on any of the tourists coming into the area from the west especially when I gave him the Specs needed & then he agreed.

Still wanting to put it someplace, but then I stated that they would have to have home for 150 to 250 of more the the midia with their equipment plus homes for them to sleep & rest it.

We got along well & understood each other so he realized that Banff or Lake Louise area would NOT be ideal for the Olympic events ESPECIALLY the media & for the past few yrs the media has simply exploded. Not to mention the competitors to the spectators in some other place in Alberta!!!!!!

Amazing that Campbell with his extra people did NOT check with Calgary to be updated, or especially in the USA.

Yes Campbell, the Fed Govt & all have really bunged up this one yet think it will be THE GREATEST the world has ever seen.

[deja vu]

yet think it will be THE GREATEST the world has ever seen.

I think the mountains, the Ocean and the friendliness of Vancouverites will make the Olympics as well as the athletes. Just to bad Harper and Vanoc could not help elevate the experience even more. They have left a bad taste with Canadians.

[Smitty]

THANKFULLY someone with some money & knowing how to talk to hotel people has seemingly rescued the sick kids that had lost their rooms on the tourist ferry boat. Sounds like they do have rooms now AND fortunately to those that are taking care of them for I pointed out the responsibility one has, when they are in charge of younger people as I use to be when in charge of my Amateur Wrestlers ONLY this one is way beyond what I was facing. I hope the above has proven satisfactory & that all the washrooms to eating places to getting to the games will be ideal.

I was thinking of some of the medals I had obtained as an Amateur Wrestler myself to medals when shooting rifle or h/gun. So often the bonze, silver to gold medals were of pot metal & no quibble from me at the time to even now. I was lucky to earn them. Even a lovely solid silver belt-buckle from a Firearms Organization turned out to be Silver on the outside while the rest was pot metal. Also those medals were mounted in a small wooden frame with glass to hang on the wall. In moving from Banff to this part of the Okanagan Valley someone stole them along with my papers of shooting to h/gun instructor papers to Certified Amateur Wrestling Coach Instructor in Alberta. They were probably trashed in the garbage once the theif realized they were on no use or value to him/her.

[CielOnTap]

Pot medal sounds very descriptive, Smitty. I am also chuckling because the pot part reminds me of the snowboarder who got media exposure because he enjoyed marijuana. Think back about 10 years. Will that individual be appearing on screens soon?

[CielOnTap]

$3M vanishes in Olympic ticket scam
February 04, 2010
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER—A ticketing scam of Olympic proportions has left hundreds of would-be spectators without the seats they thought they’d bought, and sent ticket resellers scrambling with just over a week to go until the Games.

Companies like Vancouver-based Showtime Tickets began to grow concerned last month when some of the blocks of tickets they’d purchased failed to show up.

Then they were told by their supplier — Atlanta-based Action Seating — that the tickets didn’t exist.

“This fiasco has touched anybody in the ticketing business in some capacity,” said Mario Livich, chief executive officer of Showtime.http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/717406

Electronic robbery. Shame on the individuals who were selling but did not come through with the tickets. For an athlete to have any family attend his or her international sports competition is a bonus but not at almost double the going ticket rate.

Yes, fewer tickets should have been set aside for VIPs-only 2 per country (head of country and maybe the Olympic Committee member for that country) and let the others pay from their own pockets.

[Smitty]

CielOnTap, you do send some shocking posts to say the least especially in this Campbell screw-up call the Olympics. Missing tickets could possibly be obtain from the Conservative MPs as they purchased all they could while the opposition memebers bar one NDP did NOT purchase them.

As for the young chap that won a snowboarding gold medal, but in trouble as he smoked pot. I think he will be running for the Conservatives up in the Kelowna area. Sort of fitting I have to agree. To bad he was not rubbing shoulder to shoulder with Campbell & his gang to possibly run as Liberal in B.C. for that would be more fitting.

"Pot Metal" went for sort of anything that was the cheapest way to produce a metal that might be covered with something better yet not iorn, steel, aluminium & such. Lots of childrens toys were made of Pot Metal for I remember the toys I use to save up so I could have a British airplane to sort of fly around in my hands & my imagination.

[Smitty]

Have to admit that I saw said Cdn building that was made in the USA & not of Canada on the TV last evening. Not seen the rest of it, but really that is CHEAP to look at & I would say withing a few months of the completion of the games that building will be toren down & space used for better purposes.

This was something I learned from the head of the Banff & Jasper National parks, for he went down to Squay Valley to look at the prior Winter olympics in the USA to say one big flaw is just one artificial ice machine was used to do the different rinks to the speedskating course. Anyone just wanting to rent the one ice rink would find the grand total including ALL. Also pointed out any buildings at the event that were NOT needed there, was the matter of tearing them down as others squabbled for some strange reason or another to even a last minute some bit of a wind protection for some & about to fall down. He also gave me the number of media & their cameras being used which was double or triple what I had guessed at, so this one will even be so many more.

Something I forgot to mention is that they are using that massive chopper that lifts pretty well anything to lift up the new(???) snow from the park area 3 yrs away & dump it high up where the ski slope people want it. Bit costly at the rental rate of such a chopper. I am afraid to even mention the cost, not to mention the cost of the snow, dirty or not, being trucked some 3 hrs from Manning Park. So who is paying for all of this? The people owning the ski slopes or the tax payers of Canada & especially B.C Province?