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I will say that mith's definition is comically inadequate. If you and I compete to see who can fart the loudest, that's a sport under his definition. And you could use equipment to measure the decibels, so it wouldn't have subjective judging. Of course, if you went with free-style farting, that would be a different matter.
a great fart is not judged simply by its volume, but by the quality of the sound. you would definitely need judges for this one. fat, sweaty judges.
edit to add: fat sweaty judges would be a good name for a band. maybe.
What prompted my post was the fact that after the competition, when it became clear that the young lady from the USA did not quite pass the Romanian young lady for third place, there was a frenzy of activity to file an inquiry, which later resulted in 3rd and 4th place being reversed. I felt a little sorry for the girl from Romania, and wasn't real proud of the way we (the USA) had paperworked our girl into a medal. The whole thing underscored the very subjective nature of certain competitions.
Hmmm...I hear where you're coming from, but to the credit of both the gymnastics scoring and our coaching, the objective of the new scoring system is to make scoring less subjective. Every routine has building blocks (for lack of a better term) that add up to a maximum score. There's much more standardized deductions for errors. It was pretty evident the math didn't correlate - not only were the knowlegable US fans calling for an appeal, you could almost see the "oh, hell" look on the Romanian team once the US did appeal - it sure appeared they knew the jig was up.
I believe that's the only appeal filed by the US team during the Olympics, so it's not like we were constantly whining.
I don't see how filing the inquiry was any different than looking at instant replay, as the judges clearly made a mistake in determining her difficulty score. What was ridiculous about that entire episode was how the US Coach had no idea about the scoring error until the Karolyis pointed it out to him...talk about amateur hour. They didn't clarify what the tie-breaker was but I agree giving them both bronze medals would have been a lot better than shafting the Romanian hottie completely.
If DMT didn't exist we would have to invent it. There has to be a weirdest thing. Once we have the concept weird, there has to be a weirdest thing. And DMT is simply it.
- Terence McKenna
Bullshit is everywhere. - George Carlin (& Jon Stewart)
How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are? - Satchel Paige
"That's pretty hilarious you criticizing my post, as YOU'RE the one making the judgements on what is a sport. So tell us why you have the end all final decision?"
No one has the final decision. They're just opinions, and a dictionary definition doesn't rule the discussion.
on a more important topic, why does Judge Jude not use the Reply with Quote button?
Spain got an even bigger boost than that in 1992... then completely fell away again when the temporary funding dryed up. They went from 1 gold in 1988 to 13 golds in Barcelona.
1988 - 1
1992 - 13
1996 - 5
2000 - 3
2004 - 4
Isn't it also that the home team is allowed a participant for every event?
I always liked Alfonseca and he is twice the pitcher Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown was - cavebird 12-8-05 You'd be surprised on how much 16 months in a federal pen can motivate you - gashousegang 7-31-06 "...That said, the hippo will always be the gold standard here" - Heyelander's VD XII avatar analysis of SeaDogStat 1-29-07 It's surprising that attempts to coordinate large groups of socially retarded people would end in this kind of chaos. - Cobain's Ghost 12-19-07
on a more important topic, why does Judge Jude not use the Reply with Quote button?
He's a rebel... and loves quotation marks
I always liked Alfonseca and he is twice the pitcher Hall of Famer Mordecai Brown was - cavebird 12-8-05 You'd be surprised on how much 16 months in a federal pen can motivate you - gashousegang 7-31-06 "...That said, the hippo will always be the gold standard here" - Heyelander's VD XII avatar analysis of SeaDogStat 1-29-07 It's surprising that attempts to coordinate large groups of socially retarded people would end in this kind of chaos. - Cobain's Ghost 12-19-07
Hmmm...I hear where you're coming from, but to the credit of both the gymnastics scoring and our coaching, the objective of the new scoring system is to make scoring less subjective. Every routine has building blocks (for lack of a better term) that add up to a maximum score. There's much more standardized deductions for errors. It was pretty evident the math didn't correlate - not only were the knowlegable US fans calling for an appeal, you could almost see the "oh, hell" look on the Romanian team once the US did appeal - it sure appeared they knew the jig was up.
I believe that's the only appeal filed by the US team during the Olympics, so it's not like we were constantly whining.
I might have to go back and look at the tape, but I only recall three knowledgeable fans calling for an appeal. I saw several folks who seemed disappointed with the original score, which seemed to me should have been higher.
I'm not sure it was "pretty evident" the math didn't correlate. Maybe you could summarize that for us.
As for the "oh, hell" look on the Romanians, I don't see how you can infer they knew there was a scoring issue. I think it is much more likely that they thought "oh, hell, the US is going to try to screw our girl out of a medal". I specifically noticed, however, that the expression on the face of the third place girl remained constant. I don't think you could read anything into her.
And so far as reading body language, I did notice that the US girl went over to the Romanian girl and hugged her, as if to say "you were great, congratulations". The commentators noticed this as well, and mentioned it.
Bottom line...if this was a math error (as in 2+2=4 instead of 5), then that's great. If it was a math error along the lines of an effort to quantify subjectivity, that's a different matter.
I'm glad we weren't constantly whining. That would make us look bad.
Back to the medal count...I think that is a creation of the media coverage. Do you think the teams care about the overall count, or just about what their sport is doing? Do the people you work with care whether we out-medal GB or China?
I still believe it is an outdated remnant of the Cold War. The Olympics aren't supposed to be country against country, but athletes competing with one another.
I will say that mith's definition is comically inadequate.
It was supposed to be comically inadequate. I find it comical when people try to define what a sport is, based pretty much on their own opinion.
"I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."
back to the medal count...i think that is a creation of the media coverage. Do you think the teams care about the overall count, or just about what their sport is doing? Do the people you work with care whether we out-medal gb or china?
I still believe it is an outdated remnant of the cold war. The olympics aren't supposed to be country against country, but athletes competing with one another.
Commie!!!!!
"I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."
Back to the medal count...I think that is a creation of the media coverage. Do you think the teams care about the overall count, or just about what their sport is doing? Do the people you work with care whether we out-medal GB or China?
I still believe it is an outdated remnant of the Cold War. The Olympics aren't supposed to be country against country, but athletes competing with one another.
i don't care about the medals. i watch for the amazing athleticism.
i don't care about the medals. i watch for the amazing athleticism.
Me too. I don't give a rat's a$$ who wins the medals.
"I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."
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