Coded gray, I guess.

Thursday 19 August 2004

Screenshot The Sims

Pic of the day: Now if women's trampoline bounce was in the Summer Olympics, I suppose it would improve blood circulation in some of the onlookers. (I believe I have this idea from Al Schroeder, but perhaps it was just a similar idea.) Screenshot from The Sims. Trampoline by Fingermouse of Cheap Frills, I believe. She has the niftiest downloads in existence. Squeeee! OK, onward...

Olympic stupidity

Some days ago the Olympics started in Athens, I believe it was. My Internet service provider, Telenor, had a sudden fit of generosity and offered to let me watch it over broadband. This would have made sense if I didn't already have a broadband connection, and they wanted to sell me one. As it is, they surely have some hidden agenda; I don't trust the generosity of corporations. Not that any of this matters to me: The day I take the time to watch people running in circles is to me a sad day indeed. The list of things I would rather do is longer than I can reasonably estimate, but I am sure it contains thousands of items, including such things as playing chess with myself to win or taking a walk on a really foggy day to enjoy the view.

The stupidity of grown people running in circles is one thing. The stupidity of people watching others running in circles is another and much greater thing. The stupidity of people paying to watch others running in circles is on the border of even my colossal imagination. Then again, nobody actually asked me to do that, so I guess it makes a certain sense after all.

***

I heard briefly on the radio some thinker who claimed that the Olympics, and sports in general, was really about sex. It was about finding the strongest person or the person with the most stamina. I suspect this is partly close to the truth, as evidenced by the fact that people get so upset if someone uses chemicals to enhance his performers. On the other hand, if this was the whole truth, then mostly women would watch the men's Olympics, right? And that is hardly the case. To the best of my knowledge, men are most eager to watch any kind of sports. Of course, it could be to find out who their rivals were, but that is not how they act. Rather it seems customary to cheer on one or more of the participants.

There is also the small point that physical strength and stamina lost a lot of their selective advantage around the time when some geeks invented the first spear and artificially created fire. Intelligence clearly has higher survival value, but competitions in that area generally draw much less attention than physical sports. (Imagine NaNoWriMo as a spectator sport ...)

The most obvious explanation for this is that people are really stupid. But just accepting the most obvious explanation is not too smart either. I personally think it goes back to childhood. Most kids spent quite a bit of their formative years running in circles or chasing each other or chasing a ball. They also largely enjoyed it. I believe the fascination with sports date back to that time of their lives. Conversely, I was not only bad at sports; I actually got life-threateningly ill from them. So of course watching sports causes me no enjoyment.

That's my explanation and I am sticking to it. But I still think, objectively speaking, that watching other people run is silly and not particularly healthy. Then again, the same could be said about eating snacks, and since when has that stopped any of us? In fact, I am sure thousands of people are combining the two right now...


Yesterday <-- This month --> Tomorrow?
One year ago: Virus day
Two years ago: Kill the pedophiles? (Red!)
Three years ago: Victimless sins
Four years ago: Key events of the day
Five years ago: Greed on Oslo S

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