badgerx16

3 day eventing is derived from cavalry training, in which the close control ( dressage ) was vitally important as part of melee combat preparation, maintaining formation on the battlefield, and creating the partnership and trust between horse and rider. ( Similarly, find a video of the Spanish Riding School ). It is actually very hard work, which I know having tried it both as a rider and in training working hunter ponies. There are still the individual and team dressage,and individual and team show-jumping events to come.

Fine, but it isn't just Jamaicans that say it.

Not the bloody judges who got the score wrong and then had to correct their error ?

People 'axing' questions of each other. ( Generally the same people who finish each sentence with "you know?". )

Don't forget the additional financial controls the FL are intending to impose on the skates as a condition of handing over the golden share, should they get beyond August 10th.

The DCFSBs might be planning to splash the cash, but is Chinny ?

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!