Brazil 2016 Summer Olympics

[OJsDad]

You forgot to mention the lets show women's gymnastics at 11:00pm at night, even though it was completed 8 hours earlier.  Let's ignore the fact that NBC has 4 other stations that they could have played women's gymnastics earlier in the evening.  And then shown it again on the local NBC stations again later.

[undercovergeek]

On a happier note I'm not one to get too excited but the GF and I are watching it from approx 8pm to 11 each night. It's on bbc were there's no adverts, the downside being they have to commentate on the local footage which is Brazil centric so a gb athlete might be up next and they'll switch to another discipline of the gymnastics but other than that it's been a nightly thing I've enjoyed - don't particularly care about diving or gymnastics but it's been good to cheer the team on

[BanzaiCat]

If there were no adverts here, I'd watch the entire thing. NBC is making it a positively awful experience.

They took a lot of crap, too, during the opening ceremonies on Twitter. Some of the posts were hilarious.

[bayonetbrant]

have watched one of the alt channels?  We've been watching NBC Sports, plus the 2 olympic-specific channels on Uverse, and been fine.  We've actually watched very little of the main NBC network broadcast.

[BanzaiCat]

It seems every time I tune in to one of those alternative channels, I get tennis or synchronized whatever, some of the most boring events ever to watch. Tennis and golf both suck as spectator sports (IMO of course). Playing either is MUCH more fun, but I can't stand sitting there watching either.

And synchronized anything is pretty damned silly. Unless there's some kind of pr0n event, and that might happen soon given the Olympic Committee's propensity to whore itself out.

[bayonetbrant]

target shooting was on this morning.  Yesterday was had the rugby 7s.

[JasonPratt]

Speaking of crime scandals, Mom says the Russians have been contributing to that as visitors, with some of them raping the maids.  >:(

On a more positive note, I think this could be the first time that fencing has been regularly featured on the main network offerings!  O0 The nieces have been watching that when they can (among other things of course); and I got to explain some of the things to them and to Mom and Dad.

Highly amused to see that, as back in my day, sloppy crappy form is still king!  :P Watching the sabre gold, I could predict for the folks when the judge would start basically penalizing both sides by calling both their attacks as simultaneous, losing patience with their nonsense and forcing them to fight more cleanly if they wanted him to call a score. Then he lost patience again on the final point and was just like, whatever, simultaneous attack again? -- fine, I'll randomly assign it to the guy who's ahead, game over, bleep to you all.   

[JasonPratt]

Oh, look, Women's Volleyball.

Of course Team USA is wearing the speedo panties and the Swiss are wearring full body suits.

I suspect the Swiss team didn't need speedo panties to show off.  O0

Then again, this is Rio, so... what did the Brazilian team not wear?  >:D

[OJsDad]

Oh, look, Women's Volleyball.

Of course Team USA is wearing the speedo panties and the Swiss are wearring full body suits.

Just be glad it's not the men's team wearing the speedo's.

[OJsDad]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/us-olympic-medalists-must-pay-%E2%80%98victory%E2%80%99-tax/ar-BBvxOnD?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

Uncle Sam still comes for you, even if you're winning Olympic medals in the country's name

Olympic medals and the bonuses—$25,000 for a gold medal, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze— that the U.S. Olympic Committee awards athletes for landing one of the top spots all count as taxable income to the IRS.

Victory bonuses and medals are seen by the IRS as being like any other prize winnings, such as lottery, casino or game show winnings and, thus, are taxable.

The tax bill might not be as big as you'd imagine thanks to the medals' actual monetary value, the basis on which they are taxed, being so low. According to MONEY's own estimates the scrap value of a gold medal is about $501, depending on the portion of actual gold used to make the medal and current price of gold. Silver medals have even less value, about $300, and bronze medals, being a mix of copper and zinc, have little value.

Athletes can offset their potential tax hit with the hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses they've likely racked up for training and traveling, if they treat their sport as a profession. Last Olympics, the New York Timesreported that Missy Franklin's parents spent $100,000 a year on her swimming expenses.

There are many who dislike that Olympic athletes must pay taxes for a victory.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has referred to this issue as "the victory tax" and has called on the House to pass legislation exempting Olympic winners from paying income taxes on their medal earnings. Sen. Marco Rubio also proposed a bill in 2012 to exempt Olympians from the tax. Even President Obama has said he's in favor of an exemption.

[BanzaiCat]

Maybe banning the IRS would be a better idea.

[steve58]

Soccer [aka Football to Grogs-across-the-pond] shocker!

^warning, don't click if you want to watch the Olympics on TV later.

[bayonetbrant]

[steve58]

^I think I can safely say, that on that level, Phelps and I are equals  :D

[Staggerwing]

Maybe, instead of trying to teach dolphins to plant mines on moving subs, the Navy should just start cloning Phelps.