OlympicsFan

I can post my vote, but i have no idea what catgamer's vote looks like.

If catgamer doesn't want to post, then @uk12points please go ahead.

I think it has to be "it's not over until the fat lady sings".

Don't be sad, the german vote will come soon ...

Thanks, which place? Where can i find the current ranking?

Sorry, i completely forgot that the contest takes place today. Am i too late? Did i miss anything important? Did Germany already receive any points?

Germany was drawn 32nd in the "voting order draw". Could someone please tell me what that means? 1) Which day will it be/what time? 2) Do i have to be online at that time? 3) Are there any other dates when i am supposed to be online, to "participate" in this contest? 4) Will i be allowed to "announce" my ranking order myself or will someone else do it for me?

About the mens 200 IM results: Here are the live results from the australian swimming championships: http://liveresults.swimming.org.au/SAL/2017OPEN/ Mens 200 IM prelims took place in session 5, the fastest time was 2:02.04 by Travis Mahoney. Mens 200 IM finals took place in session 6, the fastest time was 1:59.24 by Clyde Lewis. I think Morgan and Irvine didnt even compete + the australian record is 1:56.69 by Leith Brodie from 2009 ... I used to look up the world rankings at the FINA website too, but in my opinion they are very slow to update their rankings and make a lot of mistakes. A while back i for example saw 4 or 5 japanese girls (i never heard of) being at the top of the world ranking in the 400 IM, with times that were faster than the current world record ... i think they mix up short course and long course times quite often. Nowadays i take the world rankings from "Swimswam": https://swimswam.com/

Good work compling that list, my friend, but i have a few questions: Mens 200 IM: When did Morgan and Irvine swim those times? According to my list it should be 1) Hagino 1:56.01 2) Shun 1:56.16 3) Seto 1:56.90 Womens 400 IM: ... 3) Teramura 4:35.20 Womens 100 fly: ... 3) Chimrova 57.17 Mens 200 breast: ... 2) Koseki 2:0718 3) Persson 2:07.85 Womens 200 breast: ... 2) Asaba 2:23.53 3) McKeown 2:53.58 Womens 100 breast: ... 1) Aoki 1:05.29 2) Efimova 1:05.90 3) Makino 1:06.05 Mens 50 free: ... 3) Sedov/Proud 21.74 Womens 800 free: ... 2) Li 8:20.89 3) Titmus 8:23.08 By the way: Cate Campbell wont compete in Budapest. Very interesting to see how strong Japan, China, Russia and the canadian women are right now (Italy is also doing quite well and they have a relatively young team with Detti, Paltrinieri, Martinenghi, Miressi, Quadarella, Carini). We have already seen tons of new junior world records by Martinenghi, Kolesnikov, Zhuhao, Tan, Ikee and Hasegawa. I see up to 8 medals for Canada, up to 10 medals for Japan, at least 8 medals for China and at least 6 medals for Russia. The british, american, french and german nationals are still to come, so when can expect to see a lot more very fast times leading up to Budapest.

I agree, there is no rule that you have to judge the songs based on the quality of the music, especially because that would be discriminating.

I guess its your love for music and our different levels of "respect" for this contest. Usually i stop listening to a song if i dont like the first 30 seconds or so ... then i am just like "Nah ... i'd rather listen to some songs i like, instead of wasting my time with something i dont enjoy"

This might all make sense, but it sounds very time-consuming and like a LOT of stress, i think i'll stick with my current method. I guess you are trying to figure out which song is "best" by analyzing it, other people might be voting more intuitively. I guess as long as you spend the same amount of time to judge each song, its fair one way or the other. In the end no one will ever be able to judge all songs objectively, because you are influenced by all your experiences, without even noticing it. For example i have no problem to admit that i am completely biased when it comes to Fleetwood Mac songs, no song by any other artist would get more than 11 points from me if a Fleetwood Mac song would be entered in the contest, no matter how good this other song might be. I guess one of the most difficult parts is to judge songs independently from the artist who wrote it and the language it has been written in (I think i will never give more than 3 or 4 points to a song in a slavic language, because listening to those languages is causing me phyiscal pain). Edit: Some people might also judge songs solely on the accompanying music video, the lyrics or the looks of the (female) singer, without even listening to the song. I think there is nothing wrong with that method. I didnt find a rule that states that you have to judge the songs based on the music.

Thats very smart in my opinion, if you take too much time, you will have forgotten the songs you listened to first by the time you listen to the last songs. In addition to that you should listen to all songs the same day, otherwise your mood/the weather and so on will influence your decision without you even noticing it. I guess we have something in common if you really didnt listen to the songs yet.

I dont get what those hackers are up to. Why do they post in turkish? That way no non-turkish person will understand their "message" ... so they could as well hack some turkish tv station and spread their message there. The problem with that is that there are basically no oppositional newspapers/tv stations left in Turkey ... I still dont understand all the hate for Wilders, in the end all politicians are basically the same, but at least Wilders got a cool haircut, so i would definitely give him my vote if i'd be allowed.

People really seem to spend a crazy amount of time to select their 12 favorite songs ... i guess me and the best man are completely different. I never understood why someone would need 2 weeks to hand in his votes ... its not like all the songs were selected on deadline day ... most of the songs have been around for many weeks already.

Your song was one of my favorites, besides the argentinian song, both were very inspiring to say the least.

Greatest moment in the history of television ... EVER!? Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_kV994hurQ Youtube channel of Comedy Central UK: https://www.youtube.com/user/ComedyCentralUK/videos

Just some thoughts (i guess you dont know german, otherwise i could send you some articles): 1) German tax payers have to pay for the security measures that are needed to keep Erdogan safe and not allow a riot to happen. This is very expensive and if every turkish politican comes to Germany ten times a year (exaggeration), german people might wonder why they have to pay millions of dollars for this ... 2) If Erdogan would travel to Germany as the head of the turkish state, it would be pretty easy to forbid his public speeches, but he doesnt, instead he and his ministers come to Germany as private persons, so they normally cant be denied to speak publicly, unless one has to expect that there will be riots/violence between his supporters and his opponents. We are not there yet, but we might get there pretty soon. Foreign politicians who visit Germany to talk about politics arent (automatically) granted freedom of assembly, so if he would visit Germany as head of the turkish state, he probably wouldnt be allowed to give that kind of speech. 3) Not a political argument, but an ethical one: Is it "right" to allow him to "use" a law that grants him the right for free speech, while at the same time he is trying everything to take that freedom away from from millions of his countrymen? Does a democracy have to tolerate all opinions, even if someone is "campaigning" against basic human rights/freedom of speech/democracy itself? 4) Currently the only way for the german government to stop Erdogan from giving his speech in Germany would be to assume that he doesnt come to Germany as a private person (but as the head of the turkish state instead) and consquently not allow him to enter Germany at all, but we all know that nothing like that will happen, after all Germany needs Turkey (refugee deal) and Turkey is a fellow NATO member. I dont know anything about dutch laws concerning this topic.

2 Chainz, what a legend ... Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L_Z9pZx4Ko GQ has some really interesting videos on their Youtube channel: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RfRclWgIOg Jon Stewart and Sacha Baron Cohen (You might not recognize him at first): Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEPSJF7BYOo

Yeah ... i know that noone took them as hostages and forced them to stay away ... It has nothing to do with the host, FIS needs to do something about it, obviously the price money isnt big enough. Maybe they can "force" the top athletes to attend by changing the qualification pathway for the olympics. If you want to compete at the olympics, you have to compete at the world championships (of course unless you are injured at that time). If you win gold at the world championships you get 1000 points for the olympic ranking, if you win a normal world cup you get 50 points ... something like that. So everyone who wants to compete at the olympics either has to compete at the world championships or has to win pretty much all world cups between the two olympics, because otherwise he/she wont collect enough points to qualify for the olympics. I know that you cant force the athletes to compete at the world championships, but i think you can make it impossible/extremely difficult for them to qualify for the olympics, if they dont compete at the world championships. I think another big problem is that the world championships are so close to the X Games. FIS should host the world championships much earlier, in January or maybe even December, so that the best athletes dont have to choose between those two events. Currently none of the top athletes should choose the world championships over the X Games, if he/she is in his/her right mind.

What is the sense of hosting world championships, if pretty much all of the best athletes are missing? In mens slopestyle none of those guys would have come close to the podium if all the best athletes would have competed. Its a complete joke, this gold medal has absolutely no meaning. Pretty much the same is true for womens slopestyle/halfpipe and mens halfpipe. In addition to that the course is a joke, it looked as if they built the course in the desert ... at this point they could as well give the world championships to Qatar. I think they should split the world championships up, the same way they do it at junior level: Snowboard cross/parallel giant slalom and freestyle skiing cross somewhere in Europe. Snowboard big air/halfpipe/slopestyle and freestyle skiing moguls/halfpipe/aerials/slopestyle in the US/Canada/China/Japan or maybe Switzerland (Laax). I dont know whether its possible, but it would be extremely cool if they would host the alpine skiing world championships and the snowboard cross/parallel giant slalom/freestyle skiing cross world championships in one place at the same time.

Womens aerials: 22 competitors from 9 different nations Final result: 1) USA 2) Australia 3) China 4) Australia 5) Australia 6) Australia And they called it a winter sport ... Not a single competitor from France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland ... Mens aerials: 27 competitors from 11 different nations Not a single competitor from France, Italy, Germany or Austria ... Womens snowboard cross: 28 competitors from 12 different nations Out of those 28 competitors, 2 didnt start, one didnt finish the first run and consequently didnt start the 2nd run. Out of the remaining 25 competitors 24 qualified for the next round ... Not a single competitor from Austria or Switzerland ... Its sad to see that there are olympic events that dont even have 30 competitors or more than 12 different nations competing. I guess even luge is ultra-competitive compared to those sports ...

Anyone here who watches Comedians in Cars getting coffee? Great show with Jerry Seinfeld as host who talks to other celebrities (mostly comedians, but someone like Obama also has been a guest) about whatever comes to their minds. One of my favorite Conan O'Brien videos: One of my favorite Stephen Colbert videos (the great part starts around 5:32 and ends at 8:22): A new kind of superhero? I think i havent laughed that hard very often in my life.

Pretty funny (at least in my opinion) prank by two german comedians ... La La Land won an award in Germany without even knowing it. You need to turn on the subtitles if you dont speak german.

Amazing Japan, Australia and France! Laffont, what a talent she is! The japanese guy came out of nowhere. For me moguls is a ridiculous event, its even more subjective than figure skating, gymnastics or ski jumping. I think they should eliminate the score for "clean technique", only the time and the difficulty/execution of the tricks should matter. I have to add that at least the pictures today were spectacular, i wonder how long it takes to create a moguls "track" and how expensive it it? For me aerials is also a pretty weird event, it isnt really a winter sport event for me ... i think you only have to be a good gymnast to do those tricks. It seems to be the diving of winter sports, if diving events would only consist of 2 or 3 jumps ... The fact that mostly non-traditional winter sport nations are good in aerials supports my impression, i just hope that dual moguls wont become an olympic event. I have mixed feelings about big air, on the one hand i see no reason why snowboard should have a big air event at the olympics but not freestlye skiing, at the other hand halfpipe, slopestyle and big air are just too similar in my opinion. I dont care about the results in aerials at the world championships. I hope for at least 1 german medal in ski cross and that Kelly Sildaru will win womens slopestlye, now that Lisa Zimmermann will miss this event due to injury. I also dont care about mens halfpipe/slopestyle. In womens halfpipe i hope that Sabrina Cakmakli will make the final again like she did in 2015 and maybe finish even better than 5th this time.