OT The Olympic Games

[Tim Streater]

You might say that, I just don't happen to agree.

This, OTOH, ...

[djc]

Illusions of plenty.

[tim.....]

Is it only me who considers the Games to be a huge waste of money, another f*ck up waiting to happen and that the money could have been better spent on the NHS? I live in the north and will not see a penny of where my money has been spent.

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I live in the south - and neither will I

But ISTM that its main benefit to the country is as a marketing opportunity, and it isn't going to be that if everyone who didn't get (want) a ticket is a grumpy naysayer.

tim

[tim.....]

And it is indirectly getting even more of our money than may initially be obvious. Atos is a sponsor, sorry - partner, for the Olympics & Paralympics. But they get a huge wodge of money from the DWP for doing medical assessments on DLA claimants - which these days seem to have extraordinarily high levels of successful appeals.

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TBH I don't think that's the fault of the people doing the assessments. It's the fault of the people who wrote the script that they follow, which is probably not Atos.

tim

[polygonum]

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There may indeed be some truth to what you say. But a fair part of the blame is being apportioned by people at Lima.

"It is currently against the law to use anyone other than a doctor approved by the Secretary of State to carry out incapacity benefit medicals. However, the DWP has agreed to allow ATOS to use 'other Healthcare Professionals (HCPs) such as nurses' to carry out examinations 'in other benefit areas - provided that they follow appropriate EBM [Evidence Based Medicine] protocols and are supported by LiMA'. LiMA (Logic integrated Medical Assessment) is the software developed by Atos primarily to carry out incapacity for work medicals."

So "the script" is provided by Atos.

[Steve Firth]

If only that were true.

[Tim Watts]

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I go into London and I'm buggered if I can see what will come of it, except perhaps a few new fancy buildings in the Stratford area - which could have been built dozens of times over for the same money.

[ARWadsworth]

There were plenty watching in Doncaster

[ARWadsworth]

That's good news

[km]

......... the Games to be a huge waste of money,

Weymouth is centre for yachting events. In my opinion this is not likely to attract large numbers of visitors. Despite this a new road was built near the town, roundabouts in the Poole/Bournemouth area reconfigured at the cost of millions. Roads resurfaced on main dualcarriageway coming out of the New Forest (between Ringwood and Fendown). Work that would not have been considered if that word "Olympics" hadn't been mentioned.

Disruption to local community and businesses in Wimborne. Months of annoyance just to allow traffic to progress a few minutes faster to a none event.

km

[Tim Watts]

Up a tree wondering why his peers had not learnt to climb and ignored him when he tried to show them?

[Tim Watts]

But not wholly a physical competetition...

[John Williamson]

To be fair, most of the work wanted doing anyway, and it will help traffic flow in the area for quite a few years.

[T i m]

Quite, me neither but my point was more about that they / we do do such things, rather than it is done (if you get me). ;-)

Someone invents 'The car' and sells one. He then sells a second and one day they find themselves on the same stretch of road, going in the same direction. The rest as they say, is history.

So why is my first powered transport was a Honda P50, that I bought 'broken' of a lady school teacher for £5, repaired (re tapped the spark plug thread using a couple of spark plugs, turned into taps with a hacksaw) and then rode it until someone gave me an NSU Quickly in kit form in a wheelbarrow? Why did I not 'tune' either of those machines to make them go faster (and the Honda did 27mph flat out)? [1]

(yup)

Hopefully 'with' them as well. I would generally give them the benefit of the doubt. As you say it was often a fairly confined space (local sports hall, gym, car-park etc), and if they asked to borrow a tool (often a more specialised driver or spanner etc) I would do so on the STRICT understanding the tool cam straight back to me when they were finished with it (and ideally ASAP). It was also made clear that they would be made wholly responsible for it and they were not allowed to led it to anyone else without my permission. If they did all that was expected then they were generally allowed to borrow more / other tools as required. They (or sometimes their parents when they came to collect them) might also get a little pep talk about getting some of their own. Sometimes the parents simply didn't realise what was going on (their kids having to borrow other peoples stuff) and were usually cooperative and understanding.

Luckily I had been there and got the T-shirt (mentioned on the cover on an RC Car mag after winning a championship ) so I was able to look after our three cars (daughter ran in two classes) and all these 'extra' vehicles as well (and the heats were fast and furious). ;-)

But then I've always been happy to show / teach in the hope that people might then be self sufficient. Partly because it saves me a job but also that they might be able to help someone else in time.

Cheers, T i m

[1] When a mate and I used to run (and were then sponsored to race) RC IC catamarans, I ran my engine pretty stock whilst my mate was constantly 'fiddling' with his. We would get to the pond on a Sunday afternoon and I would start mine and be away in no time. He would spend the next 30 minutes trying to star his and when it did it would often explode. So, *he* rarely got to actually run his boat at all.

[stuart noble]

It's not so long ago my grandchildren were telling me there should be no winners in sport. Since then we've had the footy and now The Olympics. I tell the kids what a teacher told me, "Don't believe anything you hear, and only half of what you see" The bullshit currently being served up by Big Brother is certainly not doing them any good

[T i m]

I think that's the new 'non-competitive' way in Schools isn't it.

"Now kids, remember, it's not about the winning but the taking part, right, off we go to the Olympics where we will see winners rewarded and all the rest forgotten forever". ;-)

I'll have to take your word for that.

Cheers, T i m

[ARWadsworth]

Not to mention the thousands of pounds spent on making the bikes and riders more aeordynamic to win a gold.

[ARWadsworth]

Found it

's the bike that won the gold.

[ARWadsworth]

You had money?

[The Medway Handyman]

The NHS are getting some benefit - albeit only in London.

Over 70 brand new Merc ambulances @ £105K each on the road to replace tired old LDV's well overdue for renewal.