Re: Death porn, media, and socmedia

[Robert Portvliet <robert.portvliet () gmail com>]

I have raced the US Open of (Downhill) mountain biking for the past 3 years,
which is held only 5 minutes from my home.

For the most part, the same course is used every year, but to keep the local
riders from having an unfair advantage they keep the course closed
throughout the year except for that particular race.

Practice is divided up evenly which each class ending up with about 6 hours
of practice over the 2 days leading up to the event, plus extra time ot walk
& inspect the course.

Denying visiting athletes access to any such course in favour of the 'home
team' is very dangerous, should be investigated immediately & the
responsible parties prosecuted.  I have seen before what happens when
athletes attempt to navigate a course at full speed without having every
nuance memorised, it usually ends badly..

God rest this man's soul, it is so terrible to see someone so young pass
away on the verge of fulfilling his dreams

Finally, as Dan pointed out, being ranked top 50 in the world is an enormous
accomplishment in any sport.




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://www.vancouversun.com/news/Olympic+tragedy+Death+porn+sharing+news/%0A2557992/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<http://www.canada.com/sports/2010wintergames/Games+begin+with+emotional+tri%0Abutes+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.
>
> ======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
> rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
> Britain and America are the only countries in which none of the
> `Big Brother' housemates has been seen having sex.  (I think the
> reasons are slightly different: we are inhibited, while the
> Americans are prudish.)           - Kate Fox, `Watching the English'
> victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm blog.isc2.org/isc2_blog/slade/index.html
> http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
> http://twitter.com/NoticeBored http://twitter.com/rslade
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