Doesn't make sense, unless the world is even more corrupt than you'd think.

From City AM:

Robert Johnson, who edits the running site LetsRun.com, went so far as to say that those who have benefited from [Nike's apparently excellent running] shoes in previous competitive races have been guilty of "mechanical doping".

And non-Nike athletes have petitioned World Athletics as to their fairness. Responding at the beginning of February, the sports body has set a maximum sole thickness of 40mm on trainers for the first time ever.


Nike's new shoe will, somewhat conveniently, have a sole thickness of 39.5 mm. That means it can be legally worn at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by Nike-sponsored athletes.

While rival manufacturers will look to rush out their own versions, it seems possible that, with only a few months to go until the Olympic games begin on 24 July, Nike's middle and long-distance athletes will hit the start line in Tokyo with a serious advantage.

I thought that the Olympics was a competition between different countries, not a competition between different manufacturers (like Formula One motor racing)? If I'm still right on this, why are the "non-Nike athletes" moaning? Why don't they just pop out and buy some Nike running shoes?

The only conceivable reason why not is that the Olympics won't let you use a manufacturer's equipment without the manufacturer's express permission. I accept that the Olympics is as corrupt as Hell, but that would be setting a new low.
-------------
Update - Staffordshire Man suggests that the non-Nike athletes can't use Nike shoes because they have sold their souls to a rival manufacturer/sponsor, in which case it serves them right IMHO.

Fun Online Polls: Team GB & applying for asylum in the UK while still in France

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Team GB managed to come second in the Olympics medal table…

I was absolutely delighted - 10%
I was quietly pleased, despite myself - 40%
Not bothered either way - 28%
Bah humbug! - 8%
Oh, I didn't know that - 3%
What's "the Olympics"? - 8%
Other, please specify - 3%

I am relieved about that, as I was "quietly pleased" but was worried that I was in a tiny minority.
----------------------------------
The French have come up with another cunning plan for getting their own back on us for voting Brexit.

From the BBC:

Migrants in Calais seeking asylum in the UK should be allowed to lodge their claim in France, the president of the region has told the BBC.

Xavier Bertrand said people living in the camp known as the Jungle should be able to apply at a "hotspot" in France rather than waiting to reach Britain…

The Home Office said "those in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter". Mr Bertrand said under his plan anyone rejected by the UK would then be deported directly to their country of origin.

Sounds like a great idea to me; we can just reject all such applications out of hand and then it's the French's job to deport them. No doubt the 'refugees' will be able to work out this logic for themselves, so none will be daft enough to apply for asylum in the UK, thus preserving the status quo ante.

So that's this week Fun Online Poll, is this a good idea or a bad idea?

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Fun Online Polls: Triggering Article 50 and Team GB

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

When do you think the UK government will trigger Article 50, if ever?

2016 - 1%
2017 - 42%
2018 - 5%
2019 - 5%
2020 - 5%
Later - 2%
Never - 39%

Let's hope that the (slim) majority for 2017 are correct. I'm not sure whether those who voted 'Never' were optimistic Bremainers or pessimistic Brexiteers.

A good turnout of 110 votes, thanks for taking part.
------------------------------------
An lo, to this month's taxpayer funded propaganda fest aka the Olympics. Normally I pay no attention to these things, although the rest of my family likes it and watches a lot of it on the telly. After a few days, it the British team was doing rather well in the medals table and I kept tuning back in to see whether the inevitable had happened and we had collapsed down the table again. In the end I was hooked and amazingly, we did not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, as is tradition with English/British national teams.

All of which prompted this article by the Daily Mash, "Man experiences strange patriotic feeling".

So that's this week's Fun Online Poll, what's your reaction. Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

If pedantry were an Olympic event...

It riles me that they all abbreviate "Rio de Janeiro" to "Rio". That's like abbreviating "New York" to "New" or "Sao Paolo" to "Sao". "Rio" is the least important part of the name!

As we all well know, "Rio" is the Portuguese/Spanish word for "River" (see also Rio Grande, Rio Tinto etc). Behindthename further informs us:

Its full name is Rio de Janeiro, which means "river of January", so named because the first explorers came to the harbour in January and mistakenly thought it was a river mouth.

Look on a map - Rio de Janeiro does not have a prominent river running through it (like London or Rome), so that makes abbreviating the name to Rio even more annoying.
-----------------------------
I couldn't avoid catching a few seconds of live coverage of something or other recently, the commentator solemnly announced that the competitor's time was "... seconds faster than the world record"

Bollocks. His or her time was precisely 0.0 seconds faster than the world record because be definition it is the world record.

Ich bin ein Hamburger!

(As JFK never said.)

From the BBC:

Residents of the German city of Hamburg have voted against hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Hamburg was one of five cities left in the running, alongside Rome, Paris, Budapest and Los Angeles.

But 51.6% of residents of the city voted no in a referendum on Sunday. The No camp argued that money earmarked for the Olympics could be better spent...

Hamburg's mayor Olaf Scholz was disappointed with the result: "That's a decision that we didn't want, but it's clear."

Well done lads!

Queen Elizabeth Park Opens

From the BBC

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London has opened to vandals for the first time since the London 2012 Games.

Alongside unused sports and arts venues, London's newest park features interactive water fountains that will run until the council gets bored with the idea and an adventure playground ready for taggers to make their mark.

Visitors will be able to look at the 375ft-high (114.5m) ArcelorMittal Orbit tower as it goes into decline and then closes.

It is the biggest park to be opened in London for a century.

It is hoped the attraction will shut up all the people who complained that the Olympics were a waste of money for long enough for some post-Olympics quango to disappear off with a nice fat redundancy cheque.

Visiting the park is free, although you probably won't bother.

"Sochi 2014: Great Britain's men's curling team lose to Norway"

From the BBC and Wiki:

Great Britain's men's hair stylists face a crucial final round-robin match against China on Monday in the Olympic curling in Sochi. China are seen as a relatively easy team to beat as they have notoriously thick, straight hair...

Murdoch admitted he did not perform at his best:

"I had a couple of bad ones out there," he said. "We probably made a bad tactical decision in using smaller barrels to create spiral curls or ringlets. We had them on the ropes a little bit a few times but in the end their decision to go for larger barrels to give shape and volume paid off.

"We never really took our chances by switching between Teflon, ceramic, tourmaline, metal and titanium barrels, each of which has its pros and cons. We could have been a bit more clinical and been in front, back and sides a lot earlier.

"We showed that we are crimping some good stuff in our first five and, certainly our last five, we created some decent waves and curls in hair using a variety of different methods as well.

"We are going to have to come out tough tomorrow. And whatever happens, we won't be making the disastrous mistake of getting our straightening and curling irons mixed up again."

All three podium places are likely to go to teams from Africa and the Caribbean.

China Banned for Homosexuality in Sochi

From the Ministry of Harmony

MOSCOW — The Sochi Winter Olympic Committee announced Thursday that it would ban the entire Chinese Olympic figure skating team from competition after Chinese skater Li Chunguang tested positive for homosexuality in a routine anti-doping test.

The Russian Ministry of Health lists homosexuality both as an infectious disease and as a performance-enhancing drug, especially in what the government defines as “gay sports”—figure skating, ice dancing and male synchronized diving, among others.

During their tests, Russian anti-doping officials found that Li “had a blood-homosexuality level of over 70%,” well over the acceptable limit. Several homosexuality-enhancing drugs were found in Li’s blood, including homofil, queeritol, sodorex and bendadrine. Several of Li’s teammates also had blood-homosexuality levels higher than normal.

Good website that, like The Onion but for China.

Olympics 1

From the BBC

A major parliamentary report into the London 2012 Olympics warns that the prospect of an "effective and robust" legacy from the Games is in jeopardy unless there is a change in government approach.

The House of Lords Select Committee on Olympic and Paralympic Legacy says the Games were an "outstanding success", but urges the government to appoint a minister with overall responsibility for producing legacy benefits which, it warns, "are in danger of faltering".

The report finds "little evidence" of increased participation in sport, highlights the uneven distribution of economic benefits of the Games across the UK, and also criticises funding body UK Sport for its 'no compromise' policy on sports without short-term medal prospects.

"It is clear to everyone that the Olympic and Paralympic Games were an outstanding success," said the committee chairman, Lord Harris of Haringey.

"However, since the Games, the same political impetus and agreed deadlines no longer exist and many aspects of legacy are in danger of faltering, whilst some have fallen by the wayside.

"There is confusion on the timeframes and targets involved in delivery and a lack of clear ownership of legacy as a whole."

The whole sales pitch, the reason why we threw billions at the Olympics in the first place were that they were going to give us legacy, tourism, etc. Not because we were going to host a load of obscure sports that no-one will generally pay to see.

So, to describe them as an "outstanding success" is nonsense.

Munich

A line from "Highwire" by The Rolling Stones is "Another Munich we just can't afford, we're sending in the 82nd Airborne"

From the context, I assume they are referring to Munich's first claim to notoriety, The Munich Agreement of 1938, which "is widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany."

The next claim is the Munich Air Disaster of 1958 in which seven Manchester United players and sixteen other people were killed.

Spielberg directed a film called Munich a few years ago, which is about The Munich Massacre, which was "an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany on 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, who were taken hostage and eventually killed, along with a German police officer, by the Palestinian group Black September.

I'm not aware of anything nasty happening there since, but let's keep our fingers crossed.

Fun Online Polls: The Olympics & The BBC

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

The 2012 Olympics cost each UK taxpayer about £350. Did you get your money's worth?

Yes - 11%
No - 89%

There was a very good turnout to that one (144 voters), thanks to everybody who took part.
----------------------------------
This week's Fun Online Poll was submitted by Ralph Musgrave:

"What do you appreciate most about the BBC?"

From his suggested answers, I suspect he doesn't like it much.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Fun Online Polls: Syria & The cost of the 2012 Olympics

The responses to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

What do you think the UK government 'should' do about Syria?

Absolutely nothing, steer well clear - 89%
Enforce a no-fly zone, set up safe havens - 4%
Join in a full-scale invasion - 2%
Sell arms to "the rebels" - 1%
Fire off a few high precision missiles at selected targets - 1%
Other, please specify - 4%

That seems pretty conclusive to me. There was a high turnout for this one, thanks everybody who took part.
------------------------------------
This week's poll relates to The Stigler's post about the Olympics.

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Tokyo loses race to host Games

From the BBC

Tokyo has been chosen to waste billions on the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games ahead of Istanbul and Madrid.

The Japanese capital lost a final round of voting by International Olympic Committee (IOC) members in Buenos Aires to lose to Istanbul by 60 votes to 36.

The announcement was met with anger from taxpayers in Japan, as Tokyo prepares to host the event for the first time since 1964.

When IOC president Jacques Rogge - who will retire after 12 years in the role on Tuesday - announced the winning city, Madrid taxpayers jumped to their feet in celebration and waved the Spanish flag.

A number of them were overcome with emotion and wept, following two years of anxiety.

"I would like to thank everyone in the Olympic movement for giving the games to Tokyo" a delighted Istanbul taxi driver said.

A Spanish software developer added: "It is a great that Tokyo has been chosen. I'd like to thank them for picking up the tab for my entertainment. We really dodged a bullet there."

Sporting Participation

The head of Sport Wales is complaining that sporting participation is falling because of budget cuts (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23409300) and sporting participation has fallen since the Olympics  (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/10200815/What-has-been-London-2012s-legacy-for-the-Olympic-sports-a-year-after-the-Games.html).

But what everyone seems to miss is that the sports that people play the most are the sports that kids can easily play. And "easy" means:

1. minimal equipment
2. no fixed minimum number of players
3. simple surfaces
4. little maintenance required
5. no judges
6. no supervision, low risk of injury

Football is the most popular sport in the world, because it's small boys in the park/scrubland/favela, jumpers for goalposts, go out with a ball, play until teatime. A kid can get up, grab the equipment to play the game, carry it, call on a friend, go somewhere and play it, when they fancy playing it.

If you look the sports that are the most popular in each country, they fit the same pattern.

1) Football. See above.

2) Basketball. You need a ball, a hard surface, a hoop and a couple of mates

3) Cricket. You need a tree in a park (or in India, portable stumps), a bat, a ball, some flat ground and half a dozen mates.

4) Baseball. A ball, some jumpers, some mates, a park and a glove

So, the answer isn't to spend £9 bn on a massive 3 week sporting bondoogle. It's to spend a fraction of that on leaving people with open spaces, and the council sending out a cleaning team to pick up any drug needles, condoms or other unsavoury items.

That £41bn Olympic Boost in Full

It took a little time, but I finally got to the point of finding the independent report for the DCMS by Grant Thornton (independent as in, funded by the DCMS). The summary is more than enough to tell you how they worked it out:

Underpinning these impacts is the boost to demand from the £8.9 billion Public Sector Funding Package and the additional £2 billion of privately financed spending by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games(LOCOG).

The construction of the Olympic Park in particular provided a major stimulus to the construction sector at a time when it had been hard hit by the recession. The 'administrative and support'sector also derived substantial benefits but all sectors derived some benefit, with ‘manufacturing’seeing significant supply chain impacts.

Developments in East London such as Westfield that have been catalysed by the Olympic Park development have generated further benefits for the local area.

and

These estimates take account of the spread of impacts down the supply chain and the resulting generation of economic activity through consumer expenditure

At the heart of this is a fallacy, that spending, in itself is a benefit, because it creates jobs. Bastiat was complaining about this sort of talk 250 years ago, but the people at DCMS have cooked the books still further by talking about how money moves on.

So, a bloke building a stadium isn't just the beneficiary. It's also the supermarket that he shops at, the bloke who repairs his car, the cinema where he goes to the pictures. But of course, none of these people holds the money. They are simply transferring money on. By the way the DCMS is thinking, if I gave Mark Wadsworth £10 and he gave me £10 back, I'd have created £20 of economic benefits. And yes, that's clearly weapons grade bullshit.

Great templates of our time: [Something you don't like] is a vile product of [something else you don't like]

From The Daily Mail, choose your own storyline:

"Vile product of...

A.
• Welfare UK:
• Paralympics:
• Right to inherit from your parents*:
• Warehouses:

B.
• Man who bred 17 babies by five women to milk benefits system is guilty of killing six of them
• Man who ran in Paralympics for South Africa murders girlfriend
• Man who stood to inherit a quarter of a million pound guilty of murdering parents
• Forklift truck driver guilt of murdering five women in Ipswich area

C.
• Mick Philpott treated his children like cash cows generating £60,000 a year in benefits
• Oscare Pistorius treated his Paralympic status as a cash cow generating millions a year in sponsorship
• Stephen Seddon treated his parents like cash cows to land a £250,000 inheritance
• Steve Wright treated his forklift truck as a cash cow to earn tens of thousands of pounds a year

D.
• He plotted to set fire to the family home with his wife Mairead to frame Philpott's former live-in lover Lisa Willis
• He shot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp who was hiding in the bathroom
• He killed his parents Robert and Patricia Seddon with a sawn off shotgun
• He strangled his victims with the same hands he used to steer a forklift truck

And so on and so forth.

UPDATE: Nick Drew has identified a fifth candidate for the Daily Mail treatment.

* See also: Newsthump

The Simple Seller

I've often liked BOM's expression - the Simple Shopper, to describe the disaster that is the government purchasing, but there's another side to it - the Simple Seller. Government isn't just bad at buying, it's also bad at selling:-

West Ham will be anchor tenants for the Olympic Stadium after the government agreed to put in an extra £25m towards the costs of converting the venue.

The additional money takes the Treasury's contribution to around £60m. Adapting the stadium could cost between £150m and £190m.

But the deal was secured only after West Ham agreed to increase their own funding of the project by £5m, to £15m. They will move in from August 2016 and pay around £2m a year rent.

So, we didn't just spend £500m on a white elephant athletics stadium, we're now spending a further £190m just to get rid of it, and West Ham are paying a peppercorn rent to get it (Emirates cost £500m, just to give you a comparison of the value of a new stadium).

It would have been cheaper just to have burnt the thing down.

80% of UK Population Lack Mental Arithmetic Skills

From the ES:

Almost 80% of Britons are incapable of roughly dividing £9bn by 71m, according to a new poll that shows that most people can't do rough mental arithmetic that shows a troubling state of mathematics.

A Guardian/ICM poll showed that 78% of voters believed the Olympics "were probably costing me about the same as a box of Milk Tray", as compared with just 20% who had done the sums and knew that they were actually spending at least half their family's mortgage to get exactly what they would have got if Paris had hosted them.

Queen's Christmas Message Hails Taxpaying Stars

From the BBC

The Queen is to pay tribute to the nation's taxpayers in her Christmas broadcast.

She will hail the "splendid year of taxpaying" and highlight how the taxpayers allowed rent-seeking parasites like Olympic athletes to train off their hard work, doing a load of events that no-one watches except to have their own deluded sense of British greatness reinforced.

During the address the Queen will say: "As Britain hosted a splendid year of taxpaying, all those who worked hard all year were wondering why the hell they were having £11bn taken from them under threat of violence for a 3 week festival of hop, skip and jump.

"By trying to give them and their families a better live, they allowed the rest of us to live in luxury for doing a lot of pointless things".

Athletes 'healthier' than TV chefs

From the BBC:

Prominent TV chefs are less healthy than footballers and Olympians, Newcastle University researchers say.

Jamie Oliver, Lorraine Pascale, Nigella Lawson and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall were compared to Premier League players and members of Team GB. The TV chefs' bodies contained more calories, fat, saturated fat and sugar - but less muscle.

The researchers said this was not about "bashing" chefs as many campaigned to tackle obesity. The team said it was widely agreed that cooking from scratch was healthier than buying prepared meals, but nowhere as good as pounding the track or pumping iron for up to ten hours a day, however, they said there was a lack of scientific testing of the claim.

In the study, published in the British Medical Journal, they compared 100 TV chefs, who had books at the top of the bestseller charts, to 100 top sports personalities. These were then compared to fitness guidelines set by the World Health Organization...

Prof Martin White, from the Institute of Health and Society at the university, told the BBC: "Both athletes and TV chefs are not as healthy as they could be. We're not bashing TV chefs, and some younger male members of the team were even of the opinion that Lorraine Pascale is in fact fitter than her opposite number, Jessica Ennis."