Sweet Jesus, you and your ilk are out of your fucking minds. You really act as though government is the root of all evil. As though if the mean ole' government will just get out of the way the world will be a happy fun-time place.

FUCK THAT.

I can easily say that without government regulations our industrial complexes would have poisoned us all to death years ago. Take a polluted shithole like Beijing, multiply that by every city in the world, multiply that by how much worse it would be without someone to say "you can't do that"

All your nonsensical libertarian blathering relies on many assumptions:

1. People are rational
2. People aren't evil.
3. The appropriate information will be available to make rational decisions.
4. People that are on the short end of the economic stick won't kill you for food, steal your women for fun, and riot because they can.
5. Industries will compete with one another.
6. Etc.

I really have one question though. In your utopian fantasy. What EXACTLY prevents me from taking everything someone has, by force? Private security? If you can afford it? If you can't?

You know, there was a period of institutional anarchy following the collapse of the Roman Government. All of Europe was effectively ungoverned when Rome fell. You know what that time was called? The fucking DARK AGES.

In a weird way, this video made me miss Beijing.

Ghosts in Beijing has been added as a related post - related requested by notarobot on that post.

They have an alpine slide at one of the great wall sites near Beijing - it's really fun but pretty dangerous. The employees just yell at you to go faster too, which is pretty funny.

@coolhand, What you suggested is being done around Beijing. They started before the '08 Olympics, and have plans to put in even more trees to combat the terrible air quality.

"The municipal government has announced that over the next three years it will plant 160, 000 acres of trees around the suburbs, a space which is 90 times larger than the Beijing Olympic Forest Park."

This is scarier than just some crazy vendetta cop-This guy has had all manner of special training in tactics, scenario, etc. as a Lt. M.P. in the Navy-He's a marksman, both handgun and rifle with handgun expert classification. He's had a few years to plan this, and he's got the cops in a few states, scared shit less. Almost as scary as a Glock-knock-off made in Beijing!

This time-lapse represents a TON of work.

@SpaceOddity if you visit Beijing, look me up, I'll buy you dinner.

I rode in the front of a beijing taxi once.




Once.

Ok, I've only watched one episode, but the similarities were overwhelming to me. How is it different?
In reply to this comment by gorillaman:
Hey thanks for reminding me I've been meaning to check out The Games. Just watched a couple of episodes and it's really pretty fantastic. I'm not sure Twenty Twelve can be accused of ripping them off any more than, say, The Thick of It could be said to have ripped off Yes, Minister; but there are a lot of similarities. Now I just wish there was a Beijing version.
In reply to this comment by kymbos:
Two things about Twenty Twelve:

1. It's a rip off of an Australian comedy set before the Sydney Olympics. The creators pitched it to the BBC, who passed then made one exactly the same.

2. It's not very funny. It's like a who's who of b-grade British comedic actors.

Will have a look at Him & Her if it's any good.

Hey thanks for reminding me I've been meaning to check out The Games. Just watched a couple of episodes and it's really pretty fantastic. I'm not sure Twenty Twelve can be accused of ripping them off any more than, say, The Thick of It could be said to have ripped off Yes, Minister; but there are a lot of similarities. Now I just wish there was a Beijing version.
In reply to this comment by kymbos:
Two things about Twenty Twelve:

1. It's a rip off of an Australian comedy set before the Sydney Olympics. The creators pitched it to the BBC, who passed then made one exactly the same.

2. It's not very funny. It's like a who's who of b-grade British comedic actors.

Will have a look at Him & Her if it's any good.

Yossarian i couldn't agree more.

Very british ceremony, and probably very much FOR the british people. I don't doubt that many of the reasons i enjoyed it will not be relevant to others. To take the stadium from fields of green to industrial towers was great, especially showing all of the people who were there (willing or not) to help the transition - boats arriving from the west indies and such, the suffragettes. To see the growth of britain and eventually the forging of the rings. I think the ring forging was one of the coolest things i've seen.

It was different, and at times anti-political, anti british. Because being anti british is a british trait. Thank you boyle for showing what pride in our country looks like. The NHS and great ormond street, these are things to be proud of. Our humour, our invention, our quirkyness, our gifts to the arts. If only this would inspire more pride in our health sector. We used to lead the world with our NHS till the tories got their hands on it, maybe we can once again if we take PRIDE in its quality; show the world what a free health system can be. Come on, britain. Where's all the pride gone?

Even though i wasn't such a fan of the singing and dancing and texting, i understand why it was there (a tribute to what we've given the world in the technology and arts departments) and i think choosing Danny Boyle was a masterstroke. I haven't seen anything like it in my life before, and thank god it was finally something to come out of britain to be proud of. At least the british public knows how to represent britain on the world stage. If you want to know how great "great britain" really is, watch our HUMBLE ceremony.

We could lead the world again by showing them what humility, cooperation and pride can do; no more money in politics, no corrupt bankers. Civilised society and fair play were once our specialities.

Btw interrupting a tribute to one of the major bombings of the "anti terrism era" led by bush no less is if you ask me outright insulting to the memory of the dead. To cut to a worthless talking head like ryan seacrest as well? I'm sorry that britain couldn't hold people's attention for longer than 3 minutes whilst we mourn the loss of our loved ones. I hope the silence for the wars didn't bore anyone either. We all payed dearly to defend this island, this link to the theatre of war that eventually inspired the world to fight with us against wrongdoing and against the odds; the least we might expect from the rest of the world is their attention span for a bit.

It was deemed good enough that china commissioned a stage version to be shown in beijing. I bet seacrest won't be getting a call up. Anyone who didn't like it - switch over to Big Brother, Celebrity Love Island, X's Got Talent, Geordie/Jersey Shore or E! now. I'm sure you'll be mesmerised. You might even find ryan seacrest presenting one of them!!

>> ^Fletch:

Beijing may have ruined it for all future Olympic host cities, but that was the most boring opening ceremony I've ever seen. I kept switching over to "Deadliest Catch" repeats. And Paul McCartney? "I wonder if he'll sing 'Hey J...' yep, there he goes". At least the audience participation limits the amount of seventy year-old sour notes they are subjected to. Tell me that wasn't hard to watch. It was entertaining the way "FOX and Friends" is entertaining, or the way running your tongue over a painful canker sore again and again is entertaining.
By the way, Elliot finally came through and found the crab, to the relief of his crew.


Yeah. Meh for that one after seeing Beijing, China, in 2008 (why did the I delete my high definition (HD)'s recording?). The industrial revolution's ring forge was cool and nice bassy music. James Bond (007) skit wasn't that great either. At least Mr. Bean's skit was funny, and he should have been in the whole opening ceremony! Not enough special effects and colors!

Will anyone be able to 2008's summer game's opening ceremony? Oh well. Thanks goodness for recording to avoid watching 4.5 hours of it and its commercials/advertisements (ads.)/spots! What happened to Dr. Who (excluding the audio)?

Beijing may have ruined it for all future Olympic host cities, but that was the most boring opening ceremony I've ever seen. I kept switching over to "Deadliest Catch" repeats. And Paul McCartney? "I wonder if he'll sing 'Hey J...' yep, there he goes". At least the audience participation limits the amount of seventy year-old sour notes they are subjected to. Tell me that wasn't hard to watch. It was entertaining the way "FOX and Friends" is entertaining, or the way running your tongue over a painful canker sore again and again is entertaining.

By the way, Elliot finally came through and found the crab, to the relief of his crew.

Ah, the torch relay. Hitlers second greatest idea.

Am I the only one who remembers the debacle of the Beijing relay?

>> ^brycewi19:

How the hell did he get visas to get to places like Pyongyang, Kabul, Syria, and Iraq?


Answered in his FAQs:

How did you get into North Korea?
I Googled it. Koryo Tours out of Beijing. They'd be perfectly happy to take you there as well, as long as you're not a journalist. Travelers are actually reasonably welcome in North Korea.