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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Peter - thanks!
Better than watching TV before bed... sounds good.
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bmacd
Trad climber
Beautiful, BC
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 1, 2010 - 02:49pm PT
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This "murder", really got swept under the rug Tami, I noticed an article in the campus paper this morning while having breakfast. It's been reported on the back pages elsewhere, but looks like another RCMP killing of a totally innocent young person in British Columbia is going to be pulled off consequence free again.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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A report on the last athlete to finish the 50 km cross country yesterday, Jonas Thor Olsen of Denmark. He and Francesc Soulie of Andorra were neck and neck at the finish, about 20 minutes behind Petter Northug. They even had a photo finish, and the judges had to rule on it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/sports/olympics/01last.html?ref=olympics
The death of the student on Friday is being investigated by Vancouver city police. He was arrested by the RCMP in Whistler on Tuesday for being drunk in a public place, and released early on Wednesday morning. The police report that he fell several times while in custody, and had a head injury. It seems premature to speculate as to what happened beyond that.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vancouver+police+investigate+death+student+after+arrest/2620826/story.html
It's some improvement that the RCMP had conceded that another police force should investigate such matters, after claiming for decades that they could investigate themselves just fine. But we still need an independent public body with power to fully investigate the police.
And, as Jim says, on to the Paralympics, which arguably epitomize the Olympic spirit even better than the main event.
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Chief
climber
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BC's Liberals are going to deliver their post Olympic budget tomorrow.
Brace yourself. It's expected that tomorrow's provincial budget will be about all the things we can't afford anymore because we hosted the games.
I hear from a good source that BC Parks is going to be shut down, no budget, no staff, no park facilities.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Yes, provincial budget on Tuesday, federal budget on Thursday. Although the economic news here is generally reasonable, my guess is that both governments will bring in austerity budgets, and that interest rates will rise by summer.
As to the true costs of the Olympics and all the related public expenditure - well, the Auditor General will eventually tell us. Undoubtedly more than we were told.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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I hear from a good source that BC Parks is going to be shut down, no budget, no staff, no park facilities.
B.C. Parks has been dying the death of 1,000 cuts for ten years, due to budget cuts - although the amount spent on parks is trivial in comparison to the budget. It is a provincial embarrassment, given their responsibility for managing over 13% of the province, much of it wilderness, and given the pressure for development of and non-sustainable activities in those parks.
Many of the events at the Olympics occurred in Cypress Provincial Park. Many more happened at Whistler, on land taken from Garibaldi Provincial Park and given to the ski area over the last 30 years - quite a lot of land. Garibaldi Park is one of the few large wilderness parks in the world close to a major urban area. Despite this, there was virtually no mention in the news media during the Olympics of the existence of these parks, or parks generally in B.C. Indeed, we were continually told that events were taking place at a non-existent "Cypress Mountain" - although the names of the mountains comprising the park have long Black Mountain (where most events occurred), Hollyburn Mountain, and Mount Strachan.
There was a half-page article in the Vancouver Sun during the Olympics, about the name of Mount Garibaldi (!). Nothing more about the park, or about how the Olympics might affect it.
The provincial government did have "outreach cabins" during the Olympics, to encourage people to learn about the outdoors and environmental initiatives. Not at Cypress, or downtown, or Whistler. Far far away, where no tourist was likely to go. One at SFU, one at BCIT. It would have been a golden opportunity for the province to promote parks. It did have a general "feel good, outdoors" advertising campaign, but that's all.
It does all fit in with a government agenda of promoting supposedly green tourism, and development in parks. Not to mention privatization. Expect bad news tomorrow for our parks.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Incredible story!
I am reminded of a bumper sticker from North Dakota - "40 below keeps the riff raff away" !
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 13, 2010 - 01:15am PT
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Tonight the Paralympic winter games began. The opening ceremonies were at BC Place, and are being televised tomorrow - hopefully they didn't have any problem getting it up, as it were. About 500 athletes are competing in the various events over the next ten days, about 1/3 in Vancouver and 2/3 in Whistler. The Vancouver Sun has been full of informative articles about the events and athletes - http://www.vancouversun.com/ They already have up a report and photos from the opening ceremony.
The overall 'presence' of the Paralympics seems to be about 10% of that of the Olympics, but is apparently growing in relative terms, and of course that's still quite a lot. We get about 50 hours of live TV coverage here, and all the sledge hockey games involving Canada are sold out, as well as the opening and closing ceremony and other events. So hopefully it will all go well. I wonder if the Paralympics will proportionally generate about 10% as much interest on SuperTopo as that of the Olympics?
Apparently they're having enough snow at Whistler that they're concerned about road transport.
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Ben Harland
Social climber
Baltimore, MD
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Mar 16, 2010 - 12:48am PT
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MH writes:
Does anyone know why men's and women's curling are separate? Given the nature of that game, why isn't it unisex?
I'm a bit late here, but that's an interesting remark. I wonder when climbing will become unisex. Clearly, some women are up in the highest ranks of climbers. My best guess is that the chief difference seems to be some level of participation.
I look forward to seeing Lynn Hill's and Hayley Wickenheiser's in curling.
Ben
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 16, 2010 - 02:15am PT
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Current medal standings in the Paralympics (G/S/B/T):
Russian Federation 6 6 3 15
Ukraine 2 2 3 7
Canada 2 3 1 6
Germany 3 2 0 5
Belarus 1 0 3 4
Austria 2 0 1 3
Norway 0 2 0 2
United States 0 1 1 2
Australia 0 0 2 2
Italy 0 0 2 2
http://www.vancouver2010.com/paralympic-games/
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 20, 2010 - 12:28pm PT
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The current medal standings at the Paralympics (G/S/B/T):
Russian Federation 9/12/7/21)
Germany 10/5/6/12
Ukraine 4/5/6/17
Canada 7/4/3/14
United States 2/5/2/9
Slovakia 4/2/2/8
Austria 3/2/3/8
Japan 2/1/5/8
Belarus 2/0/5/7
Norway 1/3/1/5
Italy 0/2/3/5
France 1/1/1/4
Spain 1/2/0/3
Switzerland 1/2/0/3
Australia 0/1/2/3
New Zealand 1/0/0/1
Finland 0/1/0
Czech Republic 0/0/1/1
Poland 0/0/1/1
One Canadian, Lauren Woolstencroft, has won four golds medals in the skiing events, and may win another today. That would tie the record of five golds for one athlete at the winter Paralympics.
Last night Norway beat Canada 2-1 for the bronze medal in sledge hockey. The Norwegians scored with three seconds left in the game. The US is playing in the final today against Japan. Jim will be attending, and said he'd post a report.
The closing ceremony, Sunday at 7:00 PDT in Whistler, will be broadcast nationally.
A Swedish curler was suspended for using an illegal drug, which turns out to have been something that he has been prescribed for years for high blood pressure. As to exactly how any drug could help a curler....
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Mar 21, 2010 - 11:40pm PT
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The Paralympics have now ended. Final medal standings:
Russian Federation 12/16/10/38
Germany 13/5/6/24
Canada 10/5/4/19
Ukraine 5/8/6 19
United States 4/5/4/13
Slovakia 6/2/3/9
Austria 3/4/4/11
Japan 3/3/5/11
Belarus 2/0/7/9
Italy 1/3/3/7
France 1/4/1/6
Norway 1/3/2/6
Australia 0/1/3/4
Spain 1/2/0/3
Switzerland 1/2/0/3
Finland 0/1/1/2
Sweden 0/0/2/2
New Zealand 1/0/0/1
Korea 0/1/0/1
Czech Republic 0/0/1/1
Poland 0/0/1/1
Next, the Pay-Olympics, or as Tami calls them, the Owe-Lympics.
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Beatrix Kiddo
Mountain climber
ColoRADo
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But it sure was a fun party!
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MH2
climber
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But it sure was a fun party!
And especially so for those receiving the $4,300,000,000
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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What a surprise! Everything cost more than they said it would, the bills aren't all in, and they announced it on a Friday afternoon in July.
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mazamarick
Trad climber
WA
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Jul 10, 2010 - 10:48am PT
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That's OK, you guys have tons of money according to CBC News. "Canada's banking system and economy didn't experience the bubble like the US or Europe." So go ahead, knock yourself out, spend a little dough and remember what a great party it was.
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