It’s a bit of a slow news day. In science, the Japanese are planning to launch a “tether” which basically sounds like a giant bungee cord with a velcro tip, although I’m sure it’s much more complicated than that. It’s job would be to yank old satellites out of orbit, and let them burn on the way down. It’s a step forward. Also, the candidate list for the Mars One colony, in which a dozen or so brave souls will get to live out their lives in Spartan conditions millions and millions of miles away from home, has been narrowed down from 200,000 to slightly over 1,000, presumably the sane ones. One guy’s wife threatened to divorce him when she found out he’d applied. Heck, might as well.
A Republican Senate candidate in Virginia made some incredibly stupid comments about rape, but basically it was a slow news day, so I wound up reading about Sochi, which isn’t due to start until February 7th.
There are some aspects of the Olympics that I love, some that I hate. I love the beauty of the sports themselves. In the winter Olympics, my favorite is the figure skating and in the summer Olympics gymnastics. Downhill skiing is fine, but watching the figure skaters I almost feel as if I am watching superhuman beings. They are doing things with their bodies that most human bodies just aren’t capable of.
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I enjoy hearing the athletes stories. It’s a whole series of mini-movies, and I think about which ones would make good biopics.
I don’t like the politics. I’m glad that some sort of equilibrium has been reached in the whole gay athletes thing. Russia has apparently lightened up a bit, perhaps even crazy old homophobe Putin got tired of being called a crazy old homophobe. And no gay athletes have refused to attend, as far as I know.
One interesting aspect of that controversy is that this will be the first Olympic games where it is even an issue.
And I don’t like the nationalism. The U.S. Women’s hockey goalie had plans to have a few inspiring patriotic words inscribe on her helmet – in gold – but the IOC nixed that. It’s still all patriotic logos, including a couple of rapacious and apparently outraged eagles.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to it, and wish all the athletes luck. May the odds be ever in your favor.
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