A thread to post and discuss Soap-Box-relevant news about the upcoming Olympics

Russia: Six deaths, car blast prompt security sweep ahead of Games in Sochi

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/world/europe/russia-security-sochi/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

1/9/2014 10:43:57 AM

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/athletes-from-india-will-not-carry-their-nation-s-flag-161133091.html

Quote :

"India's membership in the International Olympic Committee has been frozen since December 2012, when the IOC learned that India elected officials accused of corruption to its national Olympic committee. The Indian Olympic Association will hold new elections, but those elections will not be held until after the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. As a result, India's athletes must compete as independents, and will enter the Opening Ceremony under a generic Olympic flag, not the nation's flag as shown above in 2012."

1/9/2014 12:31:51 PM

I almost feel certain some Olympic athletes or officials will be the victims of bombings. If this doesn't happen, then the area will be a police state anyway. What a terrible location in hindsight.

1/9/2014 5:44:25 PM

I think it will be a great Games, and highly doubt there will be any terrorist attacks.

1/10/2014 9:48:19 AM

1/11/2014 8:13:31 PM

^Al-Jazeera just used Al-Jazeera as a source for that muslim woman thing.

1/11/2014 9:14:46 PM

And... is it not allowed for a news org to cite itself? The links are here, so you can judge for yourself:

http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201401082236-0023301

(the link you are talking about says its source is Reuters)

1/11/2014 9:45:14 PM

Lol-Jazeera

1/11/2014 9:48:31 PM

By "safest games ever" they mean we will finally be protected from all those filthy homos.

1/11/2014 10:59:04 PM

Better off in Sarajevo amiright

1/11/2014 11:48:39 PM

I wonder how much London's number would be since they leveraged existing infrastructure

1/12/2014 7:54:30 AM

How insightful.

1/12/2014 8:52:42 AM

If anyone fucks with Putin's games, he will kill their entire family.

1/12/2014 10:05:20 AM

they have it under control. everyone will have a blast at these games.

1/12/2014 11:12:16 AM

blast

1/12/2014 12:28:38 PM

Will they still have the resources to persecute gays?

1/12/2014 12:44:50 PM

Quote :

"If anyone fucks with Putin's games, he will kill their entire family."

Nah... if anyone fucks with Putin's games, he'll probably burn down their entire village.

1/13/2014 9:52:00 AM

hell yeah hockey and curling. cant wait for the good Olympics to start

1/14/2014 10:10:42 AM

I don't know if this is at-all related to the Olympics

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/14/us-russia-usa-journalist-idUSBREA0D0AH20140114

Quote :

" Russia has barred a U.S. journalist who is critical of President Vladimir Putin for five years, a move that could upset relations with the United States and has echoes of the Cold War... ... Such expulsions have been rare since the end of the Cold War and collapse of the communist Soviet Union in 1991. But the ministry dismissed suggestions by Western media that the move against Satter was politically motivated as "tendentious"."

1/14/2014 10:46:47 AM

I'm not really sure why the US gov't would give two shits about that.

1/14/2014 4:34:26 PM

Over/Under Snowden is at Opening Ceremonies?

1/14/2014 7:23:04 PM

Snowden showing up would be bananas

1/15/2014 12:35:25 AM

He might show up....

...if he isn't snowed in.

1/16/2014 8:55:37 AM

Putin would win biggest troll of all time award if he brought snowden to the opening ceremonies. It would be amazing.

1/16/2014 12:28:20 PM

Well, snow is promised

http://www.today.com/sochi/russians-promise-safety-snow-sochi-olympics-8C11551653

1/16/2014 12:51:34 PM

1/17/2014 12:27:13 PM

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/21/olympic-fears-mount-despite-putin-assurances/?intcmp=latestnews

1/21/2014 2:04:08 PM

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1931067-sochi-toilets-at-the-2014-winter-olympics-will-be-pretty-intimate

1/21/2014 11:18:22 PM

Lol Sochi mayor says "there are no gays in Sochi"... BUT:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/80391/20-photos-from-sochi-s-biggest-gay-club-the-one-the-mayor-claims-doesn-t-exist

Not only that, but apparently Sochi has sort of been a quasi gay capital of Russia... Now that's something crazy right there!

1/29/2014 4:07:03 PM

So its basically guaranteed that there will be an attack at this, right?

1/29/2014 6:18:36 PM

Quote :

"I think it will be a great Games, and highly doubt there will be any terrorist attacks."

LOL

1/29/2014 6:24:34 PM

^^ British officials say an attack is "very likely". And the US is not sending any high level officials due to the risks.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/80209/a-terror-attack-is-very-likely-in-sochi-chilling-new-report-casts-shadow-on-olympics

And then there was this 3 weeks ago:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/78533/bizarre-murders-in-sochi-throws-russia-into-combat-alert-before-olympics

1/29/2014 6:35:52 PM

Isn't there evidence that the Black Widow chick is loose in the area?

1/29/2014 6:49:55 PM

are you james bond?

how about using her real name?

1/30/2014 8:05:19 AM

I only know her fake name, blame the media.

US now saying an attack is likely. Russia is saying they will monitor 100% of communications.

1/30/2014 8:53:40 AM

http://gizmodo.com/sochis-olympic-village-is-half-built-and-full-of-trash-1512657018

1/30/2014 7:17:30 PM

Apparently some Russian mobster with wide influence bribed people for votes, likely on behalf of Putin and his regime, giving Sochi the win.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-heroin-kingpin-helped-russia-win-olympics-sochi/story?id=22295531

I was wondering how such a giant shithole could have been picked. But that's Russia for you. They stole the win, a terrorist attack is likely, and the village is far from complete and filled with garbage. Well done, Soviets.

1/30/2014 7:44:14 PM

That's how the olympic and world cup locations are always chosen. The Olympic committee is still raving about those mormon hookers that Salt Lake City found for them.

Quote :

"In 1998, several IOC members were forced to resign after it was uncovered that they had accepted bribes from Salt Lake Bid Committee co-heads Tom Welch and Dave Johnson in return for voting for Salt Lake City to hold the Games. In response to the scandal and a financial shortfall for the games, Mitt Romney, then CEO of the private equity firm Bain Capital (and future presidential candidate), was hired as the new President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, leaving him and IOC President Dr. Jacques Rogge to contend with the public outcry and financial mess.[28] Romney, Kem C. Gardner, a Utah commercial real estate developer, and Don Stirling, the Olympics' local marketing chief, raised "millions of dollars from Mormon families with pioneer roots: the Eccles family, whose forebears were important industrialists and bankers" to help rescue the games, according to a later report.[29] An additional $410 million was received from the federal government."

1/30/2014 8:34:41 PM

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/suicide-bombers-called-biggest-sochi-olympics-risk

1/31/2014 10:23:06 AM

Steven Seagal says it's going to be fine
http://www.businessinsider.com/steven-seagal-sochi-2014-1

1/31/2014 11:01:04 AM

he'll be working in the cafeteria as a cook

1/31/2014 11:45:53 AM

Just make sure you get his pies out of the oven!

2/5/2014 6:34:05 AM

So who are we worried about attacking the games? The Chechnians?

2/5/2014 8:19:15 AM

Apparently the hotels didn't quite get finished:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/02/04/journalists-at-sochi-are-live-tweeting-their-hilarious-and-gross-hotel-experiences/?tid=pm_pop

2/5/2014 9:22:02 AM

Love this site

http://www.stupidcalculations.com/blog/sochi-ski-trip

CALCULATION Nº 9: UNCLE VLADIMIR'S $51 BILLION SKI TRIP

Quote :

"There are curiosities and there are absurdities. And then there are blasphemies, for which the funds spent on the Sochi Winter Olympics offensively qualify. In its my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours wisdom, the Russian government’s sucked out $51 billion from its citizens in order to put up the government version of a mafia wedding. No expense has been spared, no practicality left unhinged, and cash-stuffed envelopes [http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2013/oct/09/sochi-2014-olympics-money-corruption] are of course the gift of choice. It’s $8 billion more than the already over-the-top coming-out party China threw itself in 2008, otherwise known as the Beijing Olympics, and it’s three and a half times more than London’s (relatively) ghetto games in 2012; a mere $13.9 B. That only starts to put it in perspective. $51 billion exceeds the national budgets of three-quarters of the world’s countries and comes in at a sliver less than the Czech Republic's. It’s 60% more than that of The Philippines, a budget covering nearly a hundred million people. One could argue that Sochi differs in that the entire infrastructure had to be built from scratch. And while it’s true that roads, stations, and airports had to be constructed, it’s fairly assured that the only enduring thing about these Olympics will be the bank accounts of those with a tentacle in the mix. A bigger feeding frenzy there will never be. Now then, let’s get to the important matter of putting that $51 billion to more practical use. In the spirit of the Winter games, it seems fit to do a one-day ski trip for as many people as the budget allows. And if we’re gonna do it, let’s do it right and hit a sweet spot like Colorado’s Vail Mountain. Don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause Uncle Vladimir’s gonna take care of not only your full-day lift ticket, but also skis, boots, polls, and one hot chocolate. Expenses Lift ticket: $110 (online, advance purchase) Equipment rental: $27.20 (high performance ski package at Venture Sports in Vail Valley) Hot chocolate: $5 (estimated) Total: $142.20 per person $51,000,000,000 / $142.20 = 358,649,789 people Naaaaah, this can’t be right. Is this coffee decaf or something? Because my brain doesn’t seem to be working. Let me try again. No, can’t be. Impossible. Gonna check to see what I screwed up. (a few minutes later) Okay, unless I’ve totally lost it, this is actually correct. And yet a part of me refuses to actually believe it, and won’t, until these numbers are attacked by strangers on the internet. Please, do your thing... But assuming accuracy for the time being, it’s enough cash to equip and treat 358.64 million people to a fine day of skiing at one of America's best ski resorts. As it happens, it's more than enough to bring the entire combined populations of both the United States (313.9 million) and Canada (34.88 million). I'll start looking into group discounts."

2/6/2014 12:51:48 AM

This particular gem is my favorite. Take a look at the highlighted, second paragraph in particular.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579366712107461956

Quote :

" SOCHI, Russia—Rooms without doorknobs, locks or heat, dysfunctional toilets, surprise early-morning fire alarms and a Welcome Wagon of stray dogs: These are the initial images of the 2014 Winter Olympics that foreign journalists have blasted around the world from their officially assigned hotels—and the wave of criticism has rankled Russian officials. Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, seemed to reflect the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "We're doing a tour of the media center," the aide said. A spokesman for Mr. Kozak later on Thursday said there is absolutely no surveillance in hotel rooms or bathrooms occupied by guests. He said there was surveillance on premises during construction and cleaning of Sochi's venues and hotels and that is likely what Mr. Kozak was referencing. A senior official at a company that built a number of the hotels also said there is no such surveillance in rooms occupied by guests. Mr. Kozak toured the giant, gleaming new media center Thursday morning, marveling at the huge workspace built specially for the thousands of journalists who have come from around the world to cover the Games. Asked about the widely reported problems with hotel rooms not being ready for guests, he was dismissive. "We've put 100,000 guests in rooms and only gotten 103 registered complaints and every one of those is being taken care of," he said. (It wasn't clear what Mr. Kozak was counting as a registered complaint.) In a news conference, Mr. Kozak said he had no "claims against Western or Russian journalists who are doing their jobs." Most of the critical views of the accommodations or preparations amount to "small imperfections in the Olympic facilities and tourist infrastructure," Mr. Kozak said, noting that it wasn't long ago that the entire Olympic area was an "open field." "The realization of such a project is an enormous victory for the entire country," he said. "As we say in Russia, victors don't get blamed." Vladimir Yakunin, president of the national rail operator Russian Railways, which built much of the infrastructure for the Games, including subcontracting on some accommodations that weren't completed on time, attacked Western coverage as biased in a blog Thursday. "I'm very offended that the closer we get to the opening of the Olympics, the more hysteria around Russia becomes inflamed in the Western media," he wrote. "There's not a word about the quality of the Olympic facilities, about the fact that the level of readiness of the Olympic infrastructure has no analogues in the world." To build the facilities for the roughly $50 billion Sochi Olympics, Russia has built nearly an entire city from scratch. Organizers completed all the sporting venues, including the hockey and figure skating arenas, well ahead of time, as well as two villages for the Olympic competitors—one in the mountains and one by the sea. Indeed, some American athletes have been pleasantly surprised after all the reports of the problematic hotels. U.S. short-track speed skater Sugar Todd said she had heard the horror stories about accommodations, but she could barely muster a complaint about her own Olympic digs. When she arrived here last week for her first trip to the Games, she only noticed that her shared room was so spacious that it looked almost as if it were missing furniture. "The doors all have doorknobs. The lights all have light bulbs," she said. "The water is hot and running and doesn't come out a strange color. So I'm feeling pretty good." Her long-track compatriot Brian Hansen only noticed a couple of small things that, he said, were never issues in Vancouver four years ago. "When we got here, there was no soap and no trash cans," he said. "One other thing, there's no place to put our luggage." Needing far more than the single closet Hansen and Joey Mantia share, four bags of clothes and gear are strewed over the floor. But while Sochi's organizers completed the accommodations reserved for Olympic competitors and top Olympic officials well in advance, much of the housing and hotels for the media fell by the wayside, particularly in the mountain media village, one of the most problematic sites in the Olympic project. A number of hotels were simply not fully completed, with workers furiously painting and constructing bits of buildings in recent days. Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, responded to the outpouring of criticism in an interview with the Russian radio station Kommersant FM on Wednesday. He said that stray dogs were indeed a problem in Sochi but characterized the complaints about the hotels as a matter of taste. "In fairness, I would ask everyone to recall the reports from international and our domestic media about various Olympics," Mr. Peskov said. "Everywhere someone doesn't like the food, someone doesn't like the hotel, someone thinks the mattress is too hard, etc. That is, such complaints accompany all Olympics. But the guest is always right and the organizer is obliged to listen to these complaints." He said he is sure Sochi's organizers are working around the clock to fix the "flaws.""

2/6/2014 2:15:04 PM

At Russian olympics, TV watches you.

2/6/2014 3:37:05 PM

LOL Putin probably has a live feed of all the shower rooms in all the buildings... he is probably the gayest dude there! of course, you know, just for investigative purposes, to see who is gay

Oh snap, will I be taken in the middle of the night by secret forces of some country and bundled off to a Russian torture chambers.

2/6/2014 3:40:28 PM

^^ 2.6/10

2/6/2014 3:55:36 PM

can these games maybe be the catalyst we need to decide that spending the GDP of a small medium sized country so rich people can attend some events is a bad idea?

2/6/2014 3:58:46 PM