French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics ceremony
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cxe24vg59lzt

Bit suspicious.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Seems the Russians have gone to the Olympics after all.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

plenty of overtime for fibre splicers,i might volunteer ;)

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Seems likely. Any Islamist/Leftist/Eco-fascist group would have been loudly claiming responsibility by now. Causing mayhem while leaving the cause a troubling mystery is the Russian M.O. (as is flatly denying it should they be accused, even in the face of damning evidence).

Obviously it’s a blow for the French who want to be seen to be putting on a flawless Games, but the upside is that it might, just possibly, help make Western European governments take the final leap towards taking the Russian threat seriously. There is still too much tiptoeing around the fringes and hoping it’ll all somehow go away, but the reality is that the more the Russian army is degraded in Ukraine the more the Russian government will focus on asymmetric warfare as a means of trying to maintain its influence.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

The opening ceremony was hideous,everyone soaked ,people leaving early without seeing anything, lady gaga's terible singing,a headless horror show, well done France.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Disagree! I enjoyed it immensely.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I chose to watch NCIS on 5USA

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

It was like the french version of it'll alright on the night [exept it wasn't alright] wouldn't be shocked to find out many of the athletes have got pnumonia after that soaking, it did have entertainment value but not in a good way.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I chose to watch nothing. I have no real interest in the Olympics.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I thought it dragged on and on way too long and was way too disjointed.

The rain didn't help obviously. Luckily I watched it on delay so could ffwd it as I thought it'll never end. The metal horse was neat, but was way too long to do anything.

The dancers near the end were good, the laser show was excellent. Celine Dion (not a big fan) gave it everything you could tell what it meant to her. The torch lighting, again took way too long, and the balloon is bit meh. London's 2012 did that a lot better.

In the end they tried but it didn't work, stick to a stadium.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Beijing 2008 was the peak.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Yeah, I am not sure the boat thing worked but the ending was great. The horse and woman (Sequana) going up the Seine to dramatic music intercut with the history of the games was good. They finally had a sense of occasion, atmosphere and the feeling it was building to something.

The light show was excellent and the tension of the light show and building up to the reveal of where the Olympic cauldron was made it all quite exciting! I did like the dancing on top of the Debilly Bridge as the boats came through.

You just wonder if it would have been better without the rain. I think that scuppered them a bit.

The boats also just messed with the timing of it all. Having to keep cutting back really killed the pacing. Usually, you have the well-paced ceremony and then you can go away while the athletes' parade happens. This got rid of the boring bit in the middle of the ceremony but at the expense of the exciting bit.

And yeah that will be one of the most famous and iconic endings of an opening ceremony ever.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Swimming in the river Seine cancelled due to high levels of E coli bacteria,aka sewage in the water .

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

:tu:

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I did see a few comments likening the appearance of the boat on The Seine with the singer performing "Imagine" on it to a giant turd! :D So perhaps this was a strong hint to the authorities to clean the river up!

And I agree with other observers that the words "Imagine there's no countries..." don't work particularly well when you've just seen two hours of countries parading up the river in boats!

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Never mind, the beach volleyball looks splendid :)

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Some people aren't happy

Paris Olympics crowd boo Dutch rapist Steven van de Velde during opening match
Van de Velde, who was imprisoned in 2016 for raping a 12-year-old British girl, has been a controversial figure at this summer's Games. He was handed a four-year prison sentence for his actions but served only 12 months. The Dutch star arrived in France earlier this week under tight security.

And jeers rang out at a packed stadium as the 29-year-old took to the sand court at Champs de Mars park under the Eiffel Tower. He was then booed again as he was introduced to the crowd for his Olympic debut.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other...booed-33342547

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I'm surprised he was picked by his country. That's not going to go well down with most people there even if he did serve (some of) his term.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

A quote from the BBC article

---------- Post added at 18:55 ---------- Previous post was at 18:50 ----------

On another note, as you might of guessed, someone somewhere managed to complain they were "offended" by the ceremony.

:rolleyes:

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I think they had a right to be.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

It's a bit confected, isn't it? The Last Supper has been parodied/invoked thousands of times by now. It's so famous that it's been used as a reference many times. I've seen comics do it, The Simpsons did it, South Park has done it, Lost did it, House MD did it, and Battlestar Galactica did it as a poster to advertise themselves.

That arrangement has to be one of the most used motifs in the history of Western art.

The cat is long out of the bag for The Last Supper being some untouchable work.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Cancel Culture snowflakes.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

In France people have been slaughtered for less when it was another of the world’s major religions.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

It was a Dionysian Feast, not the Last Supper...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-dionysus.html

https://www.today.com/news/paris-oly...rsy-rcna163929

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

I think the part with the blue guy singing was Dionysus but there was a cut where they panned out from the table before that - without him - which I think pretty much was The Last Supper. Again, it's too iconic a reference for it to be unintentional surely.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

:D

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Topic was on disruption but now more generally Olympic based so : enjoyed the Rugby 7's but struggling to find the archery. BBC showed the GB match(es) but not the others. They show other sports without GB participation so they should make the archery and other sports also available. Isn't that why we have the red button to select the event we want, navigating BBC iPlayer is a pain?

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Vandals target French telecoms network as far-left activist arrested over rail attacks ahead of Paris Olympics

https://news.sky.com/story/far-left-...mpics-13185452

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

European Olympic broadcast rights are now with Discovery Sports, not the BBC. UK legislation means Discovery is compelled to make a certain amount of it available to the BBC but the BBC doesn’t have the rights to do wall-to-wall red button coverage like it did in 2012.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Yes, just as everyone else has the right to dismiss them as idiots desperately trying to be offended. ;)

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Of course, but mocking the Christian/catholic faiths is lazy, and definitely not edgy or provocative. It’s safe and unimaginative.

Now if they, or he, had done something mocking the prophet Mohammed, now that would have been edgy……….but that would never happen, because they’re not edgy, controversial or rebellious……….it’s safe

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Is it really mocking?

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Replacing Jesus and the Apostles with Drag queens, Trans and the Alphabet squad………yeah…a little bit.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Yes, I saw what you posted earlier.

I don’t buy it, and it’s a cowards answer, that’s been called out, and seen the backlash heading his way.

Dionysus, or more well known as Bacchus, the god of hedonism.

There are no historical depictions of him in the style of the Last Supper.

So they can say what they want, their intention was clear.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Except for the one mentioned in my original quote, The Feast of the Gods by Johann Rottenhammer and Jan Brueghel the Elder (1602)…

https://www.cableforum.uk/board/atta...7&d=1722287586

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Looks nothing like it

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Why? More so than the countless times the motif of The Last Supper has been used with the participants replaced with comic book characters, cast photos, cartoon characters e.t.c?

This just strikes me as another outrage cycle for people to be angry about something before moving onto the next thing.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Exactly. The artist has explained the background, if they insist he's wrong and persist in seeing a problem where none exists, then it's tine to buy shares in tin foil manufacturers.

Re: French train network hit by 'malicious' arson attacks hours before Olympics cerem
 

Yeah, well easy target isn’t it, as he knows he won’t have a load of Christian’s carrying AK47s looking for him.

---------- Post added at 18:01 ---------- Previous post was at 17:59 ----------

Say that to a load of Muslims would you? A Batley grammar school teacher would like a word with you.