olympics 2012

These Olympics have been so exciting that it has almost made me want to watch tape-delays, rather than merely read and write about them.

Even in the last 24 hours, NBC has shown a bare female breast, not shown the downfall of a great Russian gymnast, and generally suggested that, like the color of Bob Costas' hair, all may not be quite what it seems.

However, now I bring you a controversy that surpasses even that of Twitter and NBC huddling together to have Independent correspondent Guy Adams suspended from the site.

For a U.S Swimming official has had … Read more

This week, it's been a lot easier to love Twitter than it has NBC.

While the former offers a constant, instant stream of everything that's happening this second, the latter is doing its best to try and force you to watch your favorite Olympic event many hours after it happened.

It's a curious wonder that these two organizations are cahooting during these Olympics. There's a special NBC Olympics curated Twitter page for which, one imagines, NBC might be offering some sort of financial satisfaction.

Which might, for some, lead to a troubling question: did Twitter suspend … Read more

Dear people of London,

We need to talk. And you need to talk less.

You're going to have to change your ways, because you're really messing up the Olympics TV coverage.

Yes, even more than NBC is.

Because all of your stupid, pointless, self-serving, self-aggrandizing texts and tweets are clogging data systems. Which means that TV coverage is being disrupted. And we can't have TV coverage being disrupted.

Well, except in the U.S.

We, at the International Olympic Committee have been forced to inform you, kind, polite people of London, that, as we have just told Reuters, … Read more

If you watched Ryan Lochte's gold medal-winning swim live, you were in the vast minority. Or you simply don't live in the U.S.

While so many in the world, regardless of what time it was in their parts, watched and enjoyed, Americans could only watch online, and then hope their browsers wouldn't seize up -- a problem reported by readers, and experienced firsthand by yours truly.

Naturally, complaints have rained down on NBC like frogs at the end of "Magnolia."

Those who understand sports and the world have been quick to condemn. The Dallas … Read more

I got up early this morning, just to try NBC's Olympics live-stream.

That's a lie. I have jet lag. But NBC's traditionally brilliant coverage would have got me up anyway.

That's something of a lie, too. As my colleague Ben Dreyfuss explained on his deeply engaging Twitter feed: "Bob Costas: Here's Bangladesh, which is just overflowing with terrible athletes! #OpeningCeremonies."

Look, I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd see whether NBC's live-streaming was slightly better than its live, steaming nonsense about not showing the opening ceremony live.

Here's my … Read more

It's something of a tradition for NBC to ensure that the U.S. is even further cut off from reality.

In previous iterations of its Olympics coverage, the network's insistence on refusing to show events live -- favoring instead tape-delayed, saccharine soap opera -- put many people off watching at all.

But not enough people, obviously. NBC seemed to believe that, without competition during the summer viewing season, it could create this false programming and people would watch by default, which quite a few did.

This year promised to be different. Every event was to be live-streamed. Oh, … Read more

I fear that Google might be afraid of being treated like the butcher of Weymouth.

You might not have heard the meat of this, but Dennis Spurr tried to put sausages up in his butcher's shop in Weymouth, England. They were in the shape of the Olympic rings.

The Olympic thought police came and ordered his rings unhung.

I mention this because, in celebration of today's Olympics opening ceremony (no, of course it's not being transmitted live in the U.S., not even online), Google has created a doodle.

It is lovely little thing. But in order … Read more

The Olympic movement will not tolerate politics.

Well, when I say "politics," I mean public political statements that might make things a little embarrassing around Olympics time.

So it is, perhaps, no surprise that Greece has removed champion triple jumper Voula Papachristou from its team, after she mocked African immigrants and retweeted a tweet from right-wing party the Golden Dawn.

I am grateful to Business Insider for offering me a Google translation of her own tweet. It apparently read: "With so many Africans in Greece...At least the mosquitoes of West Nile.. will eat homemade food."… Read more

Oh, this'll go well. The London Eye ferris wheel is to be turned into a giant sentiment tracker Thursday, with a huge light show displaying how people on Twitter are feeling about the Olympic Games.

It's a move that makes some of us here in the U.K. want to shake someone by the shoulders and yell, "Have you seen how much people are moaning already? What do you think is going to happen?"

Launched by feisty Olympic legend Daley Thompson, of button-bashing 8-bit fame, the show will start at 9 p.m. every night the games are on. Positive tweets will color the wheel gold, the Metro reports; negative will make it purple. Eye sponsor EDF Energy reckons it's the first disaster-waiting-to-happen social media-driven light show. … Read more