Field Theory by Hadyn Green

The cycling had lots of complaints about coverage.

This genius tweet from Scotty Stevenson

I mentioned last night that perhaps we should have been suspicious when they changed that girl's name to Yay She Won before the Olympics even started...

That last link is now broken, but the media release about it is here.

And finally, don’t worry about Prime cutting off the Olympics to show stupid, vitally important, rugby or league. That’ll be on Maori TV now.

Is the working assumption that my working assumption the other day was correct?

Has Sky said anything about losing the feed during the equestrian last night, during the rides of the final, crucial, two combinations and just breezily going to ads?

Has Sky said anything about losing the feed during the equestrian last night, during the rides of the final, crucial, two combinations and just breezily going to ads?

Yes, problems with the broadcast from the UK. But why on earth couldn't they just let the viewer know that?

Yeah. They don't have a ticker or something ready to run?

Yes, problems with the broadcast from the UK

But I heard that Prime was showing it without losing the feed. Surely Prime and Sky are using the same feed??

This would seem to be a good place for random comments
Table tennis is amazing (the recycled old fart with his patronizing commentary, not so much)
Women's 10m pistol final was weirdly riveting. They were so very serious. I was very relieved to see they actually could have emotions after it all ended.
Kiwi women's hockey team were/are brilliant
I can't watch Eventing without jumping in my seat - I expect the High Jump will have the same effect. Oh and volleyball definitely has the same effect.
Why are women in some sports competing in full (2cm thick) make up? It feels vaguely like the 1960s.
And seriously there is nothing more enjoyable than watching people display genuine talent.

Kiwi women's hockey team were/are brilliant
I can't watch Eventing without jumping in my seat - I expect the High Jump will have the same effect.

Yeah, the time difference in Sydney makes for slightly less late nights. I was loving the hockey last night... oddly no one wants to talk about it in the office? Neither do they want to talk Super Rugby... (you did say random).

The Olympics are not living up to expectations this side of the Tasman, the expected bag of medals is not filling up so quickly.

Why are women in some sports competing in full (2cm thick) make up?

If it's good enough for the All Blacks..

But I heard that Prime was showing it without losing the feed. Surely Prime and Sky are using the same feed??

Both lost picture, but kept sound. Sky went to ads, Prime stayed with it and got it back about 30 seconds in. Sky came back a minute or so later and the commentator apologised.

Watching (on Prime) the cross-country (second) part of the three-day horsey event (yeah, I'm good with official titles)... on several occasions the commentators had to point out that we should ignore the clock on the screen as that pertained to a rider/horse we'd been watching earlier... in several instances you could see a counter displaying five or seven minutes while viewing a horse/rider that only just started while you were watching in the last minute or two....

That seems like a somewhat minor, and understandable glitch in the timing/TV production technical hoe-down that obviously involves lots of data, lots of vision feeds, somewhat error-prone human beings etc.... Except it's not an issue I recall experiencing at Beijing, Atlanta, or in fact any other Olympics with live satellite feeds that I recall in the last 20+ years...

I was watching a bit of the mens handball last night and thought the crowd noise sounded weird. Could hear sticks clacking and women shouting at each other and no reaction to the goals in the mens handball game.

Put two and two together and went down a couple of channels and found the womens hockey on and sure enough they had that crowd feed going into the handball game. I called SKY, they made a note of it and sure enough they put in the handball crowd feed to the hand ball game. Problem was they left the hockey feed in as well so they were over lapping. I'm watching the handball and hear the ground announcer say that NZ was now up 1-nil v South Africe. Kind of convenient though. :)

NBC more American corporate bullying...
Guy Adams, a Los Angeles correspondent for the London based Independent newspaper, has had his account suspended by Twitter after they received complaints from the mammoth corporate media outlet NBC over Adams criticism of the networks Olympic coverage.

And seriously there is nothing more enjoyable than watching people display genuine talent.

Yes it is amazing!

I am seriously pissed off at the boxing! The officials (especially the referee) robbed (ROBBED!) the Japanese competitor of a win after his opponent went to the canvas five or six times in exhaustion. The ref needed to give him standing counts or disqualify him for constantly stopping the bout.

Fucking boxing.

And so I can understand the Koreans arguing for as long as they did as three points(or technically two) in one second does seem very wrong.

It seems less "wrong" than, er, "almost not physically possible", what with the bit where the clock stops and you come back on guard in the centre of the piste after a hit is scored and then restart the clock. I'd believe it in sabre, but it stretches the imagination in epee.

NBC more American corporate bullying…

I thought this piece on the non-importance of Twitter was thoroughly excellent. It's about the Olympics, but could easily be about politics or any number of things:

http://sportsonearthblog.com/2012/07/31/nbc-is-ignoring-twitter-diehards-and-rightfully-so/

And while I was looking for that to link to, I came across another piece of the site, which was also very good:

http://sportsonearthblog.com/2012/08/01/the-19-greatest-summer-olympians-of-all-time/

Ooh, front page of the Beijing News for China's and two of South Korea's Olympic badminton match fixers. Lots more inside, as well.

what with the bit where the clock stops and you come back on guard in the centre of the piste after a hit is scored and then restart the clock

It was an extra minute, so they weren't going back to the middle.

Havie just caught up with this. It's been sitting on my FreeVo for a while. I'm not disappointed with how it turned out. What happened in the end was that someone got more points than the other person by earning them, rather than someone winning because a coin toss went there way. That seems appropriate. Plus, you know, the apparent foul, whatever that was :-)

Now I know this is an eclectic thread and also that I've said (most) of this before, but for all the times I miss and feel estranged from my homeland, this week I feel simultaneously blessed to be a Kiwi in Sydney and alienated too. First, the happy dislocation. Little brother winning and most the Aussie press being good humoured about it. Cool. But then the awkwardness. Two young men killed in some far off place in a battle of unknowable merit. How desperately sad.

I wonder what Roy & HG will have to say right now...

'Aus Zealand' currently ninth on medal tally

School of Hard Knocks. Dutch - Head Hunting.

Poor Katie Glynn. Blackstick sacrificial lamb.

PS - attempting a tackle like that these days when the stick can now be lifted above the shoulder is a no no. Tackler beware.

Her comments on Stuff. T for Tough.