funsec mailing list archives
Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia
From: Dan Kaminsky <dan () doxpara com>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:55:09 -0500
On Sat, Feb 13, 2010 at 6:25 PM, Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah <rMslade () shaw ca> wrote:
The big Olympic news of the moment, of course, is the death of luger Nodar Kumaritashvili in practice. http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/luge/story/2010/02/12/spo-luge-georgian-alert.html http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Olympic+tragedy+Death+porn+sharing+news/ 2557992/story.html http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/techsense/default.aspx You can already search for this on Youtube. Most of the videos are "tributes," but actual footage of the crash is available. Of the ones I found this morning, two require that you log on to the site (in order to "prove" your age). One has been taken down because it is the property of the IOC. This is because all of the footage is the same CTV footage (CTV being the "official" provider). CTV showed it on the news last night, just after the opening ceremonies. The anchor earnestly assured us that the video was graphic, but necessary to illustrate some aspects of the story. The aspect that was illustrated was that someone died. He came off the track like a human being out of control, and fell off the stanchion like a rag doll. I've got enough medical background to know when I see someone die, right there. Couple of thoughts. One is that the media has now collected and reported all the comments about the track being dangerous. Had this death not occurred, the luge story for the games would have been the world record times, and the comments would have been from those who said that it was a hot, sweet track. Second is that skeleton (the head first version) was first done as an Olmpic sport in Turin, and Canada one. Cam Cole (who did a lovely piece combining the ceremony and Kumaritashvili's death: http://www.canada.com/sports/2010wintergames/Games+begin+with+emotional+tri butes+Georgian+luger/2561175/story.html ) did a piece on it, and I've kept a quote from it in my file ever since: [N]o one goes downhill head-first on a cafeteria tray better than Canadians ... If you've got something really dangerous and not terribly smart planned for an Olympic sport, the sort of thing that two guys out drinking heavily one night at the top of the bobsled run probably thought up, we're in. - Cam Cole, Vancouver Sun, 20060218 Kumaritashvili was not highly ranked, and not very experienced. Luge involves some skill; Gloria noted that Kumaritashvili was lifting his head a lot during the run, so he was not sure of himself; this is not something anyone can do, but it is something you can do if you've got more guts than brains. The Olympics is increasingly involving "extreme" sports: exhilarating, not necessarily skilled, and dangerous.
This is actually a fairly offensive series of thoughts. Couple things: 1) Luge has been part of the Olympics for almost 50 years. This isn't "increasingly" extreme, this is just one of the things they do. And before it was Luge, it was indeed Skeleton. This is nothing new. 2) First you say that Kumaritashvili wasn't very skilled. Then you say the sport of Luge doesn't require much skill. Well, that would make him eminently qualified, wouldn't it? Anyway, at the last championship, the guy came in 44th. Top 50 in the world at anything ain't nothing to sneeze at. And the sport is intensely physical, requiring managing up to 7G's of force, and intensely strategic, as speed must constantly be balanced against stability in the short term to manage the long term average rate of travel. Not necessarily skilled? How well would you come in? Have you ever raced anything? Even a gas powered go cart? 3) The Canadians didn't invent Skeleton or Luge, the Swiss did. And you know, I'm not a very good snowboarder, but I sure enjoy trying to be. Last time I went out, I got quite the concussion. It happens. Look, if you want to complain about something, complain about the fact that so few eyes were allowed to be placed on the track -- as part of the genuinely offensive Own The Podium scheme -- that consensus couldn't be developed to do something about the risk of someone flying off the track and hitting the pole. Hell, of course Kumaritashvili was lifting his head, this was a new track for him! And why was it a new track? Own the Podium. To be utterly fair, Own The Podium wasn't about killing the competition. But, man, this is an astonishingly ugly side effect of access restriction. _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Death porn, media, and socmedia Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Feb 13)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Dan Kaminsky (Feb 13)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Tomas L. Byrnes (Feb 13)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Dan Kaminsky (Feb 13)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah (Feb 15)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Dan Kaminsky (Feb 15)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Rich Kulawiec (Feb 15)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Dan Kaminsky (Feb 13)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Dan Kaminsky (Feb 14)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Robert Portvliet (Feb 14)
- Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia Benjamin Brown (Feb 14)