Closing Ceremony

[CoyoteChris]

It is so nice to be able to fast forward through people who are extreamly fond of the sound of their own voices.

 

[CoyoteChris]

I hear ya Alysa i'm yawning too.

 

[skatesofgold]

I miss when you could actually see the flame extinguished in a cauldron and not whatever the hell these contraptions were that it was put into.

As much as I think the designs of the cauldrons in Paris and Milan-Cortina are beautiful, I was telling my parents earlier that I miss when the cauldrons could be seen above the entire city. I get that there's a need to be more ecofriendly, but the last couple of Olympic cauldrons haven't completely done it for me, and I was in Paris;.

 

[CoyoteChris]

As much as I think the designs of the cauldrons in Paris and Milan-Cortina are beautiful, I was telling my parents earlier that I miss when the cauldrons could be seen above the entire city. I get that there's a need to be more ecofriendly, but the last couple of Olympic cauldrons haven't completely done it for me, and I was in Paris;.

I miss the old fire pit cauldrons. Compared to the eco damage done by the Olys, a gas fire (and you could use gas emmitted from land fills) is nothing. There is nothing eco friendly about an olympics. I am all for using bamboo straws if they do that there...and I am a huge recycler and composter. And environmentalist... but flying 2900 athletes alone, let alone the officials, fans and 18,000 volunteers, in jets that burn 5,000 to 25,000 lbs of carbon fuel an hour just to get there and home, let alone all the carbon fuels needed to shuffle them around, is just something we do as a matter of course as affluent humans. We do it because we can. And its only every 4 years....never mind all the comps to get there. So would I put an end to this? No. But I would sure as shootin' raise the cost of fossil fuels to pay for the true social cost of using them, as well as discourage waste and encourage innovation.

 

[skatesofgold]

I miss the old fire pit cauldrons. Compared to the eco damage done by the Olys, a gas fire (and you could use gas emmitted from land fills) is nothing. There is nothing eco friendly about an olympics. I am all for using bamboo straws if they do that there...and I am a huge recycler and composter. And environmentalist... but flying 2900 athletes alone, let alone the officials, fans and 18,000 volunteers, in jets that burn 5,000 to 25,000 lbs of carbon fuel an hour just to get there and home, let alone all the carbon fuels needed to shuffle them around, is just something we do as a matter of course as affluent humans. We do it because we can. And its only every 4 years....never mind all the comps to get there. So would I put an end to this? No. But I would sure as shootin' raise the cost of fossil fuels to pay for the true social cost of using them, as well as discourage waste and encourage innovation.

Yeah, I figure there must be a sustainable way to do the fire pit cauldrons. I wonder what LA and Salt Lake City are planning.

 

[Jammers]

I remember when extinguishing the flame was a big deal but now you don't even notice because not only is the flame not in a big cauldron or something like that but it's in different cities now and you can't even barely see the flame. So what will LA home of save the earth liberals do with the flame i would imagine the LA Coliseum will be holding the opening ceremonies and they have the giant cauldron i swear if they use some new gadget to hold a fake flame and not the iconic cauldron i will riot.

 

[CoyoteChris]

Yeah, I figure there must be a sustainable way to do the fire pit cauldrons. I wonder what LA and Salt Lake City are planning.

Me too. In Spokane, we have a crackerjack waste to energy plant, like many Euro countries use, with scrubbers... but there are old landfills with small pipe "smoke stacks" that burn the methane from the many decades old landfills...better than releasing it into the environment but it could be captured and used for certain things. I am happy Europe and other countries are smart enough to price gasoline to the point of discouraging the gas guzzeling vehicles the US is addicted to. People laughed at us in the 1960s when us kids were preaching environmental measures...too bad they didnt listen. You can argue what causes climate change, but you cant argue that it is happening, and at a scary rate.

 

[pearly]

I remember when extinguishing the flame was a big deal but now you don't even notice because not only is the flame not in a big cauldron or something like that but it's in different cities now and you can't even barely see the flame. So what will LA home of save the earth liberals do with the flame i would imagine the LA Coliseum will be holding the opening ceremonies and they have the giant cauldron i swear if they use some new gadget to hold a fake flame and not the iconic cauldron i will riot.

Tone the flame down during the day when you can't even see it, crank it up for a few hours in the evening. The sun sets around 8 pm in LA in July, you really need the big flame only 3-4 hours per day.
I like a proper cauldron, proper flame, and a proper lighting in the stadium. Some traditions are good.