badgerx16

Due mainly to the track cycling finals - 7 gold, 3 silver, and 1 bronze, with strong support from rowing and sailing.

The only way to acheive this would be to limit each country to one entrant - the moment you get more than one there is the chance they will work together, as indeed riders in a breakaway may also choose to do. Having up to 5 per country means you will inevitably get team tactics, both the positive aspect as demonstrated by GB, and the negative as shown by the Germans and Aussies.

That is a very interesting piece. I wonder if Koch thinks that his money has been well spent ?

Were you following Dan Marino's advice "Swing hard, in case you hit it" ?

The women's race could be interesting as a comparison, 'GB' have 2 potential #1 riders, who don't exactly like each other.

Minimum 4th in the medals table, as in Beijing - assuming that the United States pharmaceutical industry is top, with the Chinese pharma 2nd, ( or vice versa ) we are supposed to be aiming to keep either Germany or Russia in 5th.

It was an excellent race, although obviously disappointing from a United Kingdom point of view. ( What is it with 'Team GB' ? The country is 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland' ). However, the organisation of the race was appalling; Stuart O'Grady having to drop back from the first breakaway to talk to the race commissaires to find out the time gap, and this then setting the standard for the rest of the race, with this lack of 'live' information probably contributing to the failure of the home riders to fully control the race - but their tactical plan was also so obvious, pre-determined, and rigid that they resembled cycling's equivalent of George Osborne, no Plan 'B'. Pleased for Vinokuorov, one of the oldest riders in the professional ranks proving he has the tactical awareness to spot the opportunity, and the stamina to maintain his form to the line. The strangest image of the race - on the road out through the leafy suburbs of Surrey seeing the line of spectators standing outside their houses, watching a line of riders taking a pi ss into the hedge.

Sorry to disappoint - after the Thin Lizzy documentary I have just watched Quantum of Solace. Have I missed anything exciting ?

Is Frankie Boyle's extravaganza still going ?

Just turn to BBC4.

Is that tom-ar-toes or tom-ay-toes ?

I can't comment - I'm watching the Proms. After this there's a program about Thin Lizzy.

If the fertile temperate zones within which food can be effectively grown migrate north and south, which they will do with GW, then the proportion of the Earth's surface that is available will diminish, it's simple mathematics.

Venus is warmer and has more 'greenhouse' gases in it's atmosphere than the Earth, how much life exists there ? With a more parochial focus, check out a globe, work out where the food is grown, it's mostly in temperate zones. Global warming will make these more arid, and hence less productive. Greenhouses work because they are a very strictly controlled and localisedenvironment, which needs continual input of plant food. Ironically, the lushest forest on Earth, the tropical jungles, grow in incredibly poor soil - they function because of the humidity and extremely rapid rate of decay of dead plant materials enabling it to be recycled before it washes away.

On the subject of Americans - 'Aluminum'. FFS they can manage magnesium, calcium, lithium, uranium, plutonium, caesium, and barium. Why not aluminium ? EDIT: forgot there is also 'nuclear' pronounced 'new-cul-er'

According to the Beeb sports bulletin at 07:35, when Team GB lined up before last night's match, only the English players sang the National Anthem.

There's an Envirofone advert out at the moment that says "You could get up to £150, or even more."

"Everybody is looking forward to the Olympics". No I'm not!

+1 Apart from the cycling and a couple of track finals I shall try to miss as much of the Olympics as possible.

So how do you think the world will look to your grandchildren and great-grandchildren ? Do you think that the entire region between the tropics of cancer and capricorn will be turning to desert ? Do you think that the main food producing tracts will have become semi-arid ? Will the Greenland icecap have completely thawed and the Arctic Sea be completely open to cruise ships in summer ? Will there still be hydrocarbons to burn in inefficient combustion chambers driving rubber clad steel wheels ? How do we as a species 'adapt' technologically if we don't change socially ? Do you subscribe to the 'weak' Gaia theory, or the 'strong' one ?

There are 5 weeks left of the transfer window. Let's leave the post-mortem until Sept 1st.

"Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists." John Kenneth Galbraith.

To be fair, thanks to multiple browsers / PCs / locations, at least 9 of those 'NO' votes were me.

G4S "security" in the news again http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/community/olympic-security-fiasco-firm-face-embarrassment-1-4767555

Accepting a piece of paper that has been thrust though your window does not mean you'll read it, let alone side with the authors. None of the mercenaries gives a toss about the club, they want their money.