S11.E14: Ocean mining

[buttersister]

First, those creatures!

Second, that greedy Musk-adoring asshole did look like every movie villain ever.

Last, while I appreciate the appliance giveaway and hope to see a John Oliver Bear soon, tonight’s winner was the biggest contribution Ronald Reagan ever made—dying in 2004. 💯

 

 

[Annber03]

2 minutes ago, buttersister said:

Last, while I appreciate the appliance giveaway and hope to see a John Oliver Bear soon, tonight’s winner was the biggest contribution Ronald Reagan ever made—dying in 2004. 💯

LOL, the seriousness with which he said that..

That "Wheel of Fortune" segment was also a lot of fun. "A group of pill-pushers" absolutely SENT ME for some reason, oh, my god, I laughed WAY too hard at that one XD. 

Also, "I Have the Wine." And "The Pointed Desert". Really?

Did not expect to see Phyllis Schafly pop up in a story like this, but leave it to her and Reagan to play a role in completely ruining what could be a good thing. "Global socialism". Are you kidding me with that? Wow. 

John's reaction to that local newsanchor calling him a "famous late night host" was cute :D. 

[aghst]

Deep Sea Mining is important topic.  I'd read a couple of articles about it but never saw someone like Barron being tied to it.  Good to know the history.

But for me, the Paris Olympics story is kind of interesting.  Is Anne Hidalgo a hated figure as mayor of Paris that these people literally want to shit on her?

Curious why she's disliked or is it that it's just an anti-authority thing?  Only thing I knew about her is that she pushed to reduce cars in Paris because of the pollution as well as climate change, because diesel cars are more common in Europe.  More recently she pushed to ban Airbnb, citing lack of housing, which is not the real reason cities want to ban Airbnb but to protect hotel lobbies.

[peeayebee]

9 hours ago, Annber03 said:

That "Wheel of Fortune" segment was also a lot of fun. "A group of pill-pushers" absolutely SENT ME for some reason, oh, my god, I laughed WAY too hard at that one XD. 

That really made me laugh too. Even thinking about it now. I can't remember: What was the real answer?

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Also, "I Have the Wine." And "The Pointed Desert". Really?

The woman first said it, and then the man said it... TWICE! Cracked me up.

I had already heard about the "Right in the butt" answer, and that the guy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel (I think it was) and had an endearing personality.

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Did not expect to see Phyllis Schafly pop up in a story like this

I think the year overlaid on that clip was 2013, but it looked like it was much older than that, I think because of her hairstyle, which she probably thought was timeless.

Making batteries from sodium is very encouraging. 

The moment that newscaster said "popular HBO host John Oliver," I knew John would leap on that, but I didn't expect the charming way he kept saying, "Oh stop."

I'm so glad the show has bought those appliances for the bakery. I can't wait to see the John Oliver bear cake.

Re swimming in the Seine... I guess I blanked out, but are Olympic swimming competitions going to take place in the river?

[DoctorAtomic]

I certainly enjoy the topics on the show because they're odd and not widely known. This was a bit much for me. I don't want to get too much on the soapbox, but do we really need to dredge up ocean golf balls? We've got other ways of getting off fossil fuels we can currently employ. 

Who went out and put the note on the bakery? 

 

[rwlevin]

The John Oliver Bear cakes are now available at Deising’s bakery in Kingston. If only I lived near by to pick one up.

 

https://www.deisings.com/

[buttersister]

Oh, nice job! Bet John gets his hands on one today. (Heh, wondering if they got a heads up? That was fast!)

[Shrek]

Looks like they just stuck a picture of JO on the bear cakes rather than putting some effort into it. If you read the face book comments there are a couple of mock ups that look much better & surely wouldn't be that difficult to do. 

[peeayebee]

I couldn't find other mockups. I did see a pic of the JO bear cake showing even more DONK! 😆 But generally I'm disappointed in what they did. I figure the JO face is edible, printed on fondant or however they do that. I guess this was the only way the bakery could make so many. It was nice that they added a bear nose and ears.

[Irlandesa]

19 minutes ago, peeayebee said:

I guess this was the only way the bakery could make so many.

That's what I think as well.  Hand piping a bunch would take up a lot of time for what I presume will be a very popular product unless they opted to do something very abstract. If they're making a cake for John specifically to show in the studio, perhaps that will have more customization. 

[Annber03]

10 hours ago, peeayebee said:

That really made me laugh too. Even thinking about it now. I can't remember: What was the real answer?

The woman first said it, and then the man said it... TWICE! Cracked me up.

I had already heard about the "Right in the butt" answer, and that the guy appeared on Jimmy Kimmel (I think it was) and had an endearing personality.

I didn't catch all of that one to catch what the real answer was, I'm curious now, too :D. 

And yeah, poor Pat just saying "No!" over and over. If he didn't accept the answer the first time, he's not gonna accept it the third time :p. 

I heard about the "Right in the butt" bit on Stephen's show :D. I love that that's become so viral. On the one hand I sympathize with these contestants, 'cause I can see where it'd be so easy to blank out and blurt out a nonsense answer when you're on national TV and your nerves kick in, but on the other hand, some of those answers were just...:D. 

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Making batteries from sodium is very encouraging. 

Yeah, that was a fun little tidbit to learn! As was the reveal that a lot of medical advancements came from sea sponges, up to and including the treatment for COVID. Thanks, sea sponges!

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I'm so glad the show has bought those appliances for the bakery. I can't wait to see the John Oliver bear cake.

I love that he made his list on a sheet of paper that you could stick on the door XD. And I also liked him pointing out all the other things that indicated that particular restaurant was in Kingston. Maybe the restaurant had moved and all those internet sites forgot to update that information? 

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Re swimming in the Seine... I guess I blanked out, but are Olympic swimming competitions going to take place in the river?

That seemed to be my understanding, too, which, after learning about what all is in there...ew. Not a chance. 

Also, I agree those hat mascot things look really stupid. 

[heatherchandler]

7 hours ago, DoctorAtomic said:

I certainly enjoy the topics on the show because they're odd and not widely known. This was a bit much for me. I don't want to get too much on the soapbox, but do we really need to dredge up ocean golf balls? We've got other ways of getting off fossil fuels we can currently employ. 

No we absolutely do not.  Humans have ruined so much.  

[Lantern7]

Nice to see that bad stuff can go down even deep beneath the sea. Trying to find alternatives for power is interesting, but it could ruin the local ecosystem. Of course, one could decide John would be against that because of the increasingly weird animals found there. See-through fish and organisms that are mostly testicles would be up his alley.

Seriously, Paris doesn’t need  a venue for swimming? Hosting beach volleyball at the base of the Eiffel Tower might seem like a stretch, but it’s not an area that’s gone through centuries of pollution.

21 hours ago, aghst said:

But for me, the Paris Olympics story is kind of interesting.  Is Anne Hidalgo a hated figure as mayor of Paris that these people literally want to shit on her?

From what I understand, the IOC is about as corrupt as FIFA. I wouldn’t be shocked if most Parisians don’t want the Games. So, yeah, scheduling bowel movements for a mayor’s dip in the river seems par for the course.

Great to see John can cause a ruckus, and he got to become a bear cake because of it. Even if you’re critical of the immediate response, you have to admire John’s vision coming true, with or without the donk he wanted.

Edited June 11 by Lantern7

[peeayebee]

I think the one Wheel of Fortune puzzle was "A group of well-wishers." I suppose it could have been 'troop,' but I think it was group.

Wouldn't swimming events in the river be affected by the current?

I really think there should be just one city that always hosts the Olympics.  

[catsitter]

It is the triathlon swimming and marathon swimming which will be held in the river.  I hate it when they have triathlon events where I live (in the UK, not France, but my house is just across the road from a river where they have them) because of the river swimming. I don't know why they can't use a pool instead.

 

 

Edited June 11 by catsitter

[DoctorAtomic]

4 hours ago, peeayebee said:

I really think there should be just one city that always hosts the Olympics.

I read an article a while back that proposed the Olympics rotate thought cities that have existing infrastructure to handle the event; Moscow, Beijing, LA, Tokyo, etc. 

Not necessarily that those citizens want them either, but there's so many cities that go bankrupt or build brand new facilities that just get swallowed by the jungle and never used again. I don't know if that's equitable, but there isn't much data on any particular city that gets a significant bump from hosting. 

[peeayebee]

I don't know if I'm remembering this right, but I seem to recall that when Los Angeles hosted in 1984(?) a big deal was made of how profitable it was. Peter Ueberroth was in charge. I don't know if that was a turning point in how other cities viewed hosting the Olympics.

[DoctorAtomic]

afaik, LA was the only to make money. 

[peeayebee]

Woo-HOO!

I was living in the area at the time. We drove around a little as preparations were being made, and people were so happy. It was a good feeling.

[JustHereForFood]

I don't know if it's because I only watch bits and pieces of Last Week now, based on the descriptions of the videos, but my main takeaway is that there seems to be waaay too many politicians that only seem interested in letting everybody else know whatever sex thing they are preoccupied about at the moment. There was that woman recently who kept crying about dildos, then all those people reading from YA books, now this poor guy looks like he just wants an excuse to tell us about how much he enjoys vagina. Nom nom nom nom. Poor repressed souls.

Swimming in Seine... I have no words. Maybe John's sewage plant could somehow help with some tips to clean the water? I'm meh about the Olympics in general, but either way I don't see the point of swimming in the river.

[Annber03]

3 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

I don't know if it's because I only watch bits and pieces of Last Week now, based on the descriptions of the videos, but my main takeaway is that there seems to be waaay too many politicians that only seem interested in letting everybody else know whatever sex thing they are preoccupied about at the moment. There was that woman recently who kept crying about dildos, then all those people reading from YA books, now this poor guy looks like he just wants an excuse to tell us about how much he enjoys vagina. Nom nom nom nom. Poor repressed souls.

It's projection, plain and simple. Everything they're freaking out about others doing, they're either doing that very stuff themselves, or are interested in it, or have read about it, or whatever. It's very similar to the politicians in the '90s and 2000s who were all out there railing about same sex marriage "ruining the sanctity of marriage" and oh, gee, look at that, those very same people were out there having affairs, and sometimes they were having affairs with people of the same sex besides. I definitely think that was one of many reasons why public support for same sex marriage increased over the years - people got sick and tired of seeing constant news stories about politicians being full on hypocrites about that issue. 

But yeah, they're clearly wresting with some kind of deep seeded insecurities or issues or curiosities around these subjects, 'cause they obsess over and think about this stuff FAR more than the actual people they're railing against do. It's like the people who go on about transgender people being "pedos" and "groomers", meanwhile I'm sititng here like, "...I dunno, you're the ones who seem awfully fixated on strangers' genitals here, but okay..."

Edited June 13 by Annber03

[DoctorAtomic]

16 hours ago, JustHereForFood said:

There was that woman recently who kept crying about dildos, then all those people reading from YA books, now this poor guy looks like he just wants an excuse to tell us about how much he enjoys vagina. Nom nom nom nom. Poor repressed souls.

Crying About Dildos was our senior prom theme. 

I think repression, yes, but it's also they're all mad that they don't have the spine to experiment, or that time passed them by, or they blew a shot at it, and why should these people be having fun then? I mean, you know they're all watching porn. It wouldn't be so profitable unless just about everyone was watching.  

[andromeda331]

On 6/10/2024 at 9:06 PM, Lantern7 said:

From what I understand, the IOC is about as corrupt as FIFA. I wouldn’t be shocked if most Parisians don’t want the Games. So, yeah, scheduling bowel movements for a mayor’s dip in the river seems par for the course.

Oh, yeah, the IOC is just as corrupt. There's a long list of things countries hosting the Olympics have to give to the IOC members. Norway was going to bid on one of the Olympics until they got the list of what the ICO demanded. It was ridiculous.

Here's a clip from Slate of their demands.

They demand to meet the king prior to the opening ceremony. Afterwards, there shall be a cocktail reception. Drinks shall be paid for by the Royal Palace or the local organizing committee.

Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public transportation.

A welcome greeting from the local Olympic boss and the hotel manager should be presented in IOC members’ rooms, along with fruit and cakes of the season. (Seasonal fruit in Oslo in February is a challenge …)

The hotel bar at their hotel should extend its hours “extra late” and the minibars must stock Coke products.

The IOC president shall be welcomed ceremoniously on the runway when he arrives.

The IOC members should have separate entrances and exits to and from the airport.

During the opening and closing ceremonies a fully stocked bar shall be available. During competition days, wine and beer will do at the stadium lounge.

IOC members shall be greeted with a smile when arriving at their hotel.

Meeting rooms shall be kept at exactly 20 degrees Celsius at all times.

The hot food offered in the lounges at venues should be replaced at regular intervals, as IOC members might “risk” having to eat several meals at the same lounge during the Olympics.

 

On 6/11/2024 at 11:47 AM, DoctorAtomic said:

I read an article a while back that proposed the Olympics rotate thought cities that have existing infrastructure to handle the event; Moscow, Beijing, LA, Tokyo, etc. 

Not necessarily that those citizens want them either, but there's so many cities that go bankrupt or build brand new facilities that just get swallowed by the jungle and never used again. I don't know if that's equitable, but there isn't much data on any particular city that gets a significant bump from hosting. 

I do love the rotating of different cities and countries. I loved seeing Sydney,  Athens, Barcelona and Rio. I wish they would go back to try to do creative ways to lit the caldron. Barcelona had the best with the archer and flaming arrow. But I do agree that they to be able to reuse the facilties. So many end up never being used. And Athens being bankrupt or about to be. 

I have always wondered why they can't use colleges for the Olympics. They have everything they need. Dorm rooms, food court, and facilities for sports. 

[peeayebee]

I didn't know about the list of demands the IOC made to prospective cities/countries. Geez.

[Shrek]

9 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

 

I have always wondered why they can't use colleges for the Olympics. They have everything they need. Dorm rooms, food court, and facilities for sports. 

Not sure how much of the list of demands I would believe, smacks of sour grapes, some seem impossible to achieve for most countries including changing laws in some instances but corrupt would be an understatement. 

As for your colleges idea, sounds great in principle but would in reality probably only be able to be achieved in very few countries. The facilities at most colleges/universities in the USA put the of the rest of the world's to shame with space being one of the biggest inhibitors. I know that in a lot of the biggest places in the UK students live off campus & the same applies around the world. Plus I think the shear numbers of participants in the Olympics makes it a non starter.

A lot of the countries not using the facilities after the Olympics is down to the  country hosting rather than anything else. 

 

[DoctorAtomic]

It's rare outside of the cities that I mentioned do new infrastructure actually get used after the Olympics, versus, for example, the Rose Bowl, which is basically used year round. That's a waste of money ending up bankrupting the city. 

I mean, I guess you can't limit the hosts to the 'haves', but on the other hand, you're basically killing the environment. 

It's the same with the World Cup being somewhere like Qatar versus literally every other country that has pro soccer leagues and therefore actual venues. 

 

[Hanahope]

Phyllis Schafly ruined a lot.

I think Los Angeles used a lot of college facilities during the 84 Olympics