The greenest Olympic Games evah!

Somehow I don't think this is what Olympic organizers meant when they promised the greenest Games ever. Temperature today at Vancouver airport - a snow-sizzling 13°C

A week from now Cypress Mountain will begin hosting the freestyle ski and snowboard events on snow delivered via helicopter and a fleet of trucks from Manning Park 200 kilometres away.
It's an international news story now.

And although VANOC CEO John Furlong assures us that trucking snow always happens at every winter Olympic Games, personally I'm holding out for the South Park episode.
.

Not "celebratory" enough for ya?

The City of Vancouver ordered the removal of the above mural from the public artspace outside the Downtown Eastside's The Crying Room gallery on the grounds it is "graffiti".

.

Artist Jesse Corcoran works at a homeless shelter: "The oppressive nature of the Games is what I wanted to capture and how the majority is suffering for the minority."

.

Gallery owner Colleen Heslin says it is the first time in ten years the city has ordered her to remove a work of art.

Vancouver spokesperson Theresa Beer says : "It has nothing to do with content."

.

Sure.

.

Robert Holmes, President of the BC Civil Liberties Association, has written to the city :

"Given the long and uninterrupted display of public art at this gallery, the tolerance of the City to date, the content of the mural, and the stipulations of the IOC and VANOC in limiting anti-Olympic expression, it certainly appears to be more than simple coincidence that the City has chosen this mural, at this time, to take exception to the Gallery's actions."

Yup.

.

From the office TARDIS at VANOC

Thanks to the handy Time And Relative Dimensions In Space machine in the downtown offices of VANOC Central, Ron Judd at The Seattle Times received "an entire day's Olympic torch-relay events in great detail before they ever happened."

Naturally the TARDIS was unable to predict every single detail and Judd's copy contained the usual number of space/time anomalies :

"VICTORIA, Oct. 30 /CNW/ - The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay is officially underway with Him/Her revealed today as the first torchbearer to hold the Olympic Flame aloft on Canadian soil at the start of the historic 106-day journey celebrating Olympic Spirit and Canadian pride from coast to coast to coast.

XX, a (insert description here) was quickly joined by (short description) XX, (short description) XX, and (short description) XX who took turns carrying the flame as it left the grounds of the British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria, BC, and set out on Day 1 of its odyssey across Canada.

XXX was especially chosen to kick-off the relay to highlight and celebrate (XXX)."

OK, so the office TARDIS isn't perfect and Judd was left to fill in some blanks by himself.

But despite all those XXX's, it did manage to capture some exact quotes from the future :

"The flame embodies the Olympic ideals of excellence, friendship and respect. These values resonate deeply with all Canadians," said Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, as he welcomed the flame at the public ceremony in downtown Victoria."

as well as the future emotional tone of the event :

"What a magical moment," said John Furlong, VANOC's Chief Executive Officer."

about an event which hadn't happened yet.

.

More VANOC TARDIS reports to come as they become available.

H/t Dave

.

The real Owelympic line-up.

.

Campbell, Harper, Doris, and Lunn - the unbeatable election line-up with Big Owe medals.

.

We are so screwed.

.

CBC : "Vancouver's Olympic committee plans to hand out $30 million in bonuses to key staff in order to encourage them stay on until the 2010 Winter Games are finished after the Paralympics in March, rather than see them leave prematurely to find new work."

.

$30M in bonuses just to finish doing their jobs? Ha!

But they are still asking downtown businesses to donate employees to work for VANOC during the Games!

Meanwhile, the Big Owe Village required a $150-million bailout, the $1-billion security bill is 5 times the original estimate, the Sea-to-Sky Highway, Convention Centre, and RAV line are all over-budget, the province is slashing social programs, the homeless are being shipped out, and Gordo is proposing a bill to allow municipalities to remove unfestive signs from inside your home.

.

The G&M says an Innovative Research Group poll of 549 BC residents showed 71% said they were either "not very excited or not excited at all" about the Big Owe with only 9% saying they were very excited.

.

Screwed.

.