London 2012

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Wednesday Link-Off: Kicking Off The Campaign

Given my Olympic policy of featuring athletes, I’ve got a small backlog of photos to get through to lead off these linkdumps. Let’s start the process with Canadian actress Tracy Spirdakos.

The Republicans are going to play up their penchant for fiscal responsibility (AKA cutting social spending) but did you know that Barack Obama is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower? (Forbes)

The Romney/Ryan strategy appears to be that if you say something often enough, it becomes the truth. That’s the only thing that explains a series of factual errors the AP have found the pair have been making. (Daily Kos)

The New Yorker did a profile on Paul Ryan. Here’s the Cole’s Notes version. (The Fix)

After the jump, the man behind @hockeyyinsiderr, a little known secret about Goldeneye for N64 and another classic Family Feud moment. Continue reading →

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What Happens To Olympic Venues After The Games? (Infographic)

The 2012 Olympics wrapped up last night with the closing ceremonies. To put on two weeks worth of the biggest spectacle in sports cost an estimated $15 billion for operating costs, the venues and infrastructure upgrades. As happens with all major sporting events where new arenas and stadia have been built, the question that arises after the event is what happens to the venues. Some cities have regular events and occupants of their venues. Other stadia stay empty most of the time.

So which are the most successful former Olympic stadia in the world and how good is the return on investment? To find out, we have a handy infographic. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Put Out The Flame, The Party’s Over

The Olympics end today with the closing ceremony. I’d like to say that I’m looking forward to it but the musical line-up makes me think the mute button will be close at hand. Anyway, let’s start off with Canadian bronze medal winning women’s soccer player Kaylyn Kyle.

Mitt Romney selected Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential nominee. Both the Republicans and Democrats are excited about this because Ryan is a right-wing ultra-conservative nut job. (The New Republic)

Toronto Star columnist Damien Cox thinks we shouldn’t complain about the Canadian women’s soccer team getting jobbed by a ref. He also only watched the first 35 minutes of the game so his opinion is not based on any sort of fact. (Deadspin)

Speaking of not basing statements on facts, NBC Olympics supremo Dick Ebersol thinks there’s nothing wrong with how NBC is covering the Olympics. (The Big Lead)

After the jump, the worst countries in the Olympics, a possible massive OHL controversy and more Call Me Maybe (sorry about that). Continue reading →

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Caption This: August 4 – 10, 2012

Inspired by the Globe and Mail’s caption writing person, we waste our time writing funny picture captions for some of the more interesting photos we come across when blogging. So here are some of the best pictures from the past week with a funny (-ish) caption. Continue reading →

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All The Ways Samuel L. Jackson Says “Fuck”

Legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson has become a Twitter legend during the Olympics. His live tape-delay commentary of the Olympics has been the most enjoyable American coverage. It’s probably more insightful than what’s on NBC. It’s definitely better than CTV’s track and field coverage. Not surprisingly, Sam’s favourite word on Twitter is the good old-fashioned f-bomb. However, he can’t seem to spell it the same way twice.

So to celebrate the end of the London 2012 Olympics, here’s every different permutation of  Sam Jackson spelling “fuck” on Twitter. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: And The Games Roll On

As I was going through possible choices to lead off today’s linkdump, I realized that I hadn’t featured a Canadian Olympian. So let’s kick this post off with Canadian heptathlete and hurdler Jessica Zelinka.

Good news! No, great news! The Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars! (io9) So can we send a man to Mars soon?

Mitt Romney has a plan to cut taxes. Actually, no, he doesn’t have a plan. He just says he’ll cut taxes. He has no idea what he’s doing or will do. (Bloomberg)

Not to dwell or anything but the Canadian women’s national team got royally hosed by an incompetent Norwegian official in the Olympic semi-final against the US. (Toronto Star)

After the jump, more on the soccer controversy, interesting Olympic stories and a Batman version of Call Me Maybe. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Taking It To The Track (And Field)

We’ve reached the second Sunday of the Olympics. The track and field events have started at the Olympic Stadium. Therefore, it’s only fitting that we continue our women of the Olympics series with British heptathlete and Olympic women’s heptathlon gold medalist Jessica Ennis.

WADA and the IOC say that Chinese swimmer Ye Shiwen isn’t on drugs. After seeing this article of a Chinese athlete training factory, I can kind of see how that might happen. People will object to cheap labour making their $100 designer t-shirts but not this? (The Daily Mail)

Everyone thinks Penn State’s football program was hit with rather harsh, nearly permanently crippling, penalties for the Sandusky scandal but it could have been worse. Penn State had to either accept the sanctions handed down or risk the death penalty. (Outside the Lines)

GQ put together a very well-written feature about the Anders Breivik massacre in Norway. (GQ)

After the jump, Olympic media coverage issues, Mitt Romney’s Twitter nemesis, and a two-minute summary of life in America. Continue reading →

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Caption This: July 28 – August 3, 2012

Inspired by the Globe and Mail’s caption writing person, we waste our time writing funny picture captions for some of the more interesting photos we come across when blogging. So here are some of the best pictures from the past week with a funny (-ish) caption. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: These Games Are Our Games

Another Wednesday, another set of our favourite links over the last three days. In our continuing series of the women of Olympics, here’s Australian swimmer Stephanie Rice.

There have been two big stories so far in this Olympics. First is Ye Shiwen swimming as fast as Ryan Lochte but passing her drug test. The other is NBC getting Twitter to ban their #1 Olympic coverage critic. (Deadspin)

The thing about Guy Adams’ ban is that Twitter alerted NBC to a possible terms of service violation so NBC could file a complain to get Adams’ account suspended which is especially suspicious considering that NBC is partnering with Twitter for Olympic coverage. (Daily Telegraph)

Adams’ account was reinstated yesterday afternoon after a detailed defence of his position and NBC succumbing to public pressure by withdrawing their complaint. (The Independent)

After the jump, a Canadian perspective on the Olympics, what’s wrong with video game reviews and David Feherty is clinically insane. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Let The Games Begin

Since the Olympics have started, I think we’re going to celebrate by leading off the Sunday and Wednesday sets of links with Olympic women. First up is Croatian women’s basketball player Antonija Misura.

People use all sorts of maths to figure out how many medals each country will win at the Olympics. Here’s a compilation of some of the better known projections. (Sports Myriad)

It’s amazing how much three seconds can change a country’s attitude to an Olympic sport but three seconds in 1972 changed how the US approached men’s basketball. (Bloomberg)

Much was made of the absolutely embarrassing approach US Track and Field took to the finish in the women’s 100m. For in-then-out runner Jeneba Tarmoh, it wasn’t just embarrassing but painful. (Sports Illustrated)

After the jump, the funny side of the Olympics, science proves that today’s pop music sucks and the best of Ralph Wiggum. Continue reading →