Just when I thought the Olympics couldn't depress me further....

[Maurice Picarda]

Haven't you realised that for Maurice there's no depth too deep to plumb?

Mote, eye, beam. You are Barton to my Beebe here.

 

[SaskiaJayne]

They'll probably be just shoulder launched SAMs anyway. They can hand'em out to the private security guards.

 

[stuff_it]

Not happy about all the ground to air missile operator jobs that will be created, some people.

I'm out of work, so do you think I could get a job then?

 

[MikeMcc]

The ground to air threat is bollocks, it's been done once and is now hyped to fuck. Siomply stepping up sucurity on all in-bound flights for that period would remove the threat. SAWs simply can't deal with the potential threat, HVM works out to a couple of Km, Rapier out to 5Km. The UK doesn't have Patriot. Even if it did, it couldn't engage in a busy airspace until the last moment. We have regular airflights into City of London airport, is anyone seriously going to close them down when they can be bringing in a massive amount of business travellers excluivlly for the Olmpics?

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

So what's the word on ticket sales? Are they still available for any decent events? Are there any hotel rooms left?

My wife would kind of like to go over to take in the Olympics.

 

[ymu]

Each country has its own allocation of tickets - you'll need to check what Canada still has left.

No idea about hotels. I'm guessing not many UK-based urbs will be needing to book one, so you might need to ask elsewhere on that one too.

 

[bignose1]

Ground to air missiles over a city the size of London? something tells me that they have not thought this one through.

I heard especially around the fencing events...so could be seen as just a bit of sabre rattling.................touche'

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

No idea about hotels. I'm guessing not many UK-based urbs will be needing to book one, so you might need to ask elsewhere on that one too.

Probably, but there's a good chance that at least some people on here either work in hotels or the hospitality industry, and people in that line of work know about these things. Also, the low hotel vacancy rate made the general news here during the Olympics, as well.

 

[grit]

So what's the word on ticket sales? Are they still available for any decent events? Are there any hotel rooms left?

My wife would kind of like to go over to take in the Olympics.

It was done in a lottery format, when we bought some a few months ago.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

MrsM, why do the Olympics depress you (besides bonkers missiles)?

The cost, the disruption, the association with the tube bombs the day after, what it's meant in a very negative way for local people, particularly the poorer ones in the area and the way young people were meant to be at the heart of it before we won the bid, but were cynically discarded afterwards. Kids were encouraged to take a particular sports qualification so that they could be stewards but that turned out to be a total waste of their time as the goalposts have not only been moved, they've been taken off the pitch.

 

[flutterbye]

why use missiles when you have jeremy clarkson, wouldnt he do this, for england. Ground to air Clarkson, they could show it on top gear.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

The cost, the disruption, the association with the tube bombs the day after, what it's meant in a very negative way for local people, particularly the poorer ones in the area and the way young people were meant to be at the heart of it before we won the bid, but were cynically discarded afterwards. Kids were encouraged to take a particular sports qualification so that they could be stewards but that turned out to be a total waste of their time as the goalposts have not only been moved, they've been taken off the pitch.

Best post I've seen here for donks

 

[teqniq]

Prepare to be even more depressed! We are now entering proper facepalm territory:

The London 2012 opening ceremony is going to be called Isles of Wonder, but there can be no wonderment more wonderful than the fact that Olympics organizers wanted Keith Moon to perform.

Moon has been dead for 34 years.

The drummer for the Who died in 1978 after ingesting 32 tablets of clomethiazole, a sedative he had taken for alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The band's manager, Bill Curbishley, told the Sunday Times he had been approached to see if Moon "would be available" to play with the surviving members this summer.

"I emailed back saying Keith now resides in Golders Green crematorium, having lived up to the Who's anthemic line 'I hope I die before I get old'," came the excellent reply....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/us-news-blog/2012/apr/13/keith-moon-london-olympics-organisers

 

[Hocus Eye.]

That's hilarious.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

If Tupac can still get up on stage, don't see why Moon can't make the effort.

 

[geminisnake]

Oh FFS!!!! Even my 22 yr old son who lives in his own pc/anime/manga world knows Keith Moon is dead!!

 

[Wilf]

Prepare to be even more depressed! We are now entering proper facepalm territory:



http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/us-news-blog/2012/apr/13/keith-moon-london-olympics-organisers

Keith Moon, John Bonham... maybe we could have an exploding drummers theme for the opening ceremony?

 

[teqniq]

Yes! Maybe they should hire Spinal Tap, just to reflect their truly awesome level of ineptitude.

 

[discokermit]

Who's going to attack us from the air, then? ernestolynch?

i so, so want this to happen.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Are they still available for any decent events?

No.

Are there any hotel rooms left?

Don't think so but people are being evicted to make way....

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/charity-warns-of-pre-olympic-evictions/6521752.article

 

[Wilf]

i so, so want this to happen.

Give the Make-a-Wish Foundation a bell? It's usually swimming with dolphins, but worth a try.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

No.
Don't think so but people are being evicted to make way....

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/charity-warns-of-pre-olympic-evictions/6521752.article

When do the olympics start? It's coming right up, isn't it?

Here, it would take three months to get someone evicted for non-cause reasons [ non payment of rent would be a 'cause' reason]. The whole show would be over.

 

[Psychonaut]

E2A - nothing

 

[toblerone3]

Olympic flame is lit today from a parabola in Greece. Part of a tradition first introduced at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

 

[Pickman's model]

Olympic flame is lit today from a parabola in Greece. Part of a tradition first introduced at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

I think what you're driving at is it's a nazi tradition

 

[Mrs Magpie]

When do the olympics start? It's coming right up, isn't it?

Here, it would take three months to get someone evicted for non-cause reasons [ non payment of rent would be a 'cause' reason]. The whole show would be over.

There's been an awful lot of de-regulation in the UK. The housing situation is a national disgrace.

 

[likesfish]

its tony Blairs Revenge for the millenium dome.
On a truly epic scale
God knows what dave will bid for in the next few years to beat it.

the Missiles are mostly there to stop the yanks insisting they bring there own or some other arse hattery.
If we have to have missiles around the games I'd rather it was bored cloud punchers rather tthan slackwater or cletus with his finger on a patriot or he,s swtiched it to automatic and it starts shooting jets down by mistakke.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Here, it would take three months to get someone evicted for non-cause reasons

Just to give a flavour of what's happening, housing-wise in London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/09/london-landlords-desperate-tenants

 

[Streathamite]

The cost, the disruption, the association with the tube bombs the day after, what it's meant in a very negative way for local people, particularly the poorer ones in the area and the way young people were meant to be at the heart of it before we won the bid, but were cynically discarded afterwards. Kids were encouraged to take a particular sports qualification so that they could be stewards but that turned out to be a total waste of their time as the goalposts have not only been moved, they've been taken off the pitch.

yep, agreed, and imagine what it's like when they're right on your bloody doorstep

 

[jusali]

Just to give a flavour of what's happening, housing-wise in London.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/may/09/london-landlords-desperate-tenants

Sounds like London's getting it's very own slums only these cost 550PCM it's fucking outrageous!
However if the demand is there, people will exploit it.