Discussion: How about this?

Before I click on a link with a spammy sounding teaser like "How about this?", I'd like to have some idea what it might be about, or if I even give a darn.

You are not the first person to do this on Attackpoint but I hope you'll be the last.

+1

+2, not least because it's paywalled so I'm almost certain that I don't give a toss.

Anyway it's the Wall st Journal (Murdoch ). More horse droppings.

I clicked.. article seems legit to me. At least by the Murdoch press standard anyway. Its not tel;ling me who to vote for.

I automatically click on anything j-man posts, no questions asked. Even if he said, "How about eggs" and posted a link, I would click it, and I HATE eggs.

I love eggs! Fried in some bacon grease and over hard.

Sorry. Didn't mean to be offensive, just looking for some AP spirit when out on my phone and away from a keyboard. And I got the spirit. Thanks.

Anyway, so no one needs to waste time, it is a WSJ article about some guy who wanted to go to the Olympics, on a whim, so he picked cross country skiing because his careful analysis suggested it would be one of the easiest sports to qualify in. And he weasels his way onto the Columbian team, because ... Just because.

That's not news. There have been bobsledders from Jamaica and who could ever forget Eddie the Eagle?
Some unlucky volunteers are going to freeze their keesters waiting for that guy to finish.

I thought they brought in minimum standards for the Olympics to stop this from happening. Seems I need to be a subscriber to view the article anyway.

Even if he said, "How about eggs" and posted a link, I would click it, and I HATE eggs.

Perhaps you wouldn't still be hungry if you ate some eggs.

From a different article (because of the paywall), he has to finish 5 races in less than the winner's time plus ten minutes to qualify.

OK, in the "Real World" as opposed to "Murdoch's Fantasy WSJ Universe", Mr. Bragiel is no chance of making the Olympics. His best result so far is last (128th) in the race at Inari in Finland . He scored 534 FIS points (needs to get that under 100 to qualify) which in this case would have meant finishing 2:30 behind the winner in 84th place, not 17 minutes down like he did.

He's training though; he'll get there. Surely he's got a couple of weeks left to qualify. Don't put the poor guy down just yet. Have a heart. Send him money to help his training programme. Don't we support the underdog here in Oz?

He probably has a big following of twits and fbookers. Let them finance his holidays.

I cannot believe your lack of generosity to help this one man finance his Olympic dream.

Don't knock the Jamaican bobsledders. they were even seni-competitive at one point (and without them, we never would have had the comic gold (spot the sarcasm) of Cool Runnings)

How can they be seni-competitive (spot the Tooms)?

Don't know if I get your subtle humour tRicky. Is "dog" perhaps an Ozzie code word for "cricketer"?

Undercricketer? I don't get it.

(Tooms is our local grammar, spelling and typo pedant. Tempting to edit my last comment to make tRicky's effort more confusing, but I'll leave it.)

Anyway it's the Wall st Journal (Murdoch ). More horse droppings.

OK, in the "Real World" as opposed to "Murdoch's Fantasy WSJ Universe"

You may be surprised to learn that the editorial board of the WSJ is an entity completely independent of Mr. Murdoch and News Corp. (and even if not, I'd be surprised if Mr. Murdoch was even aware of this athlete and his story).

And while j-man can be excused for the terse link from his phone (Mike's intolerance not so much, due to the credibility of the poster and the fact that those who operate in today's world are (or should be) used to terse content from phones), the measured, yet mis-informed political idiocy of the quotes being responded to can't be.

But that is the orienteering mindset, always thinking they are smarter than everyone else, when they actually appear dumber. One national federation website even boasts "the world's smartest athletes" or words to that effect. (Talk about an arrogant turnoff to prospects who may not have Ph. D's in several disciplines, as if education is required to run thru a forest). News flash. You're not, as the ignorance and intolerance in this thread once again demonstrates.

The aussies seem to reserve a special right to criticize Rupert, so I don't really hold it against them. I personally try to get news from a diverse set of mainstream and alternative media (clearly missing lots and lots) and work to understand implicit biases over time. To each his own.

Anyway, I was just trying to induce a reaction and I got one, although the one I was hoping for.

In any case, if anyone would like to read about this from a different source, you could look here: http://www.arcticstartup.com/2013/10/16/io-venture...

It is an interview with the gentleman.

Try 'underarmcricketer' Fletch and you'll see what gruver is getting at.

Oh goodness haven't the Kiwis let that go yet? Even Trevor managed to let it go.

Why should they when the current mob of Australian cricketers are carrying on in very similar fashion?

Is that cricket the same game we call croquet here?

Yep, it's very popular here.

Lots of sledging in cricket, despite it being a summer sport.

seni-competitive
Did you mean competitive against the almost-senile, like us M50s ?

@Jagge. Croquet isn't cricket.
In croquet you use mallets to hit balls through wickets, first one to get back home wins.
In cricket you use SouthAfricans to hit balls away from wickets, first one to get back home loses.

Randy - "ignorance and intolerance". When a Murdoch tabloid puts a photoshopped picture of the Prime Minister and Senior Ministers of your country in Nazi uniform on its front cover and then runs a front page consisting of "KICK THIS MOB OUT" when the election is announced I think we can be forgiven for some reciprocal intolerance.

As to ignorance you would think a journalist might check the official international skiing website to see how their subject was going? I did - is that ignorant??

Thanks j-man for your mature responses; I wish I could be as calm and measured in my posts; I will try.

Well,O-ing, the WSJ loves you anyway - in a calm an measured way: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527...

At least there are some parts of the Murdoch Australian newspaper empire which are entertaining rather than obnoxious. (Numbers 13 and 14 on the list are particular highlights).

Update - Mr Bragiel finished last in 3 more races, well outside the point score needed and then caught a cold. So no Olympics.

http://data.fis-ski.com/dynamic/athlete-biography....

but he got another positive article

But apart from NT News headlines... what has Murdoch ever done for us... ;-)

Appeared on The Hamster Wheel for comedy stylings?

Well known violinist Vanessa Mae was qualified to compete in 2014 Winter Olympic Games in alpine ski.
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/20/sport/winter-oly...

I try to avoid schadenfreude, but right now it is flowing over. I have no respect for him. Sorry. His insolence blots out everything else.

That story is actually kind of cool, unlike the first one.

Vanessa Mae (Olympic Fixing race epilog)
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/nov/11/vanes...

At least fixing a FIS race is not a crime - till next time:))

I'm impressed.

"A previously retired competitor with the best FIS points in the competition took part for the sole purpose of lowering the penalty to the benefit the participants in the races"

You would think that the FIS would be ables to detect anomonously bad races (wrt to mean and sd ranking points for an athlete) and just not include that athlete's score in the calculations.

Mind you, given the effort gone too, she could have the whole field perform proportionately badly to make that undetectable.