augie wrote:

It has surprised me that NBC has paid huge money again and not even shown the opening ceremonies live. At 10 o'clock EST, all there is the infinitely stupid Today Show. Give them a bloody holiday man. I just don't get it!

I actually had this convo this morning. The thing is, NBC pre-sells the commercial time for the opening ceremonies years in advance. The advertisers pay the big bucks based on the show being in prime time (when there is always a larger audience). If they show it live, or even if they show it twice, they lose a huge audience and, therefore, the advertisers won't pay as much.

shreader wrote:

What is the time/ day difference between EST & China?

It's exactly 12 hours.

kanaloa wrote:

phileysmiley wrote: We don't get to see it live here in the US (not where I am, anyway). It will be on at 8 PM Eastern tonight on NBC. However, I was live on Yahoo with a friend from Brunei (who was watching it live) at the exact moment that the announcer said that Brunei had been expelled from the games. Apparently they did not register in time and were told that they could not compete or even march in the ceremony. I'm glad you posted this bc I thought I was missing it, LOL. I figured we were on a standard delay as always when it's on the other side of the world.

Yup. I actually did get to see it live on one of our Spanish channels lol.

Actually it is Saturday 4 AM in Beijing right now so it would be 12 hours difference between there and EST

I believe China only has one Time Zone for the entire country unless I am mistaken.

yeshuas wrote:

Actually it is Saturday 4 AM in Beijing right now so it would be 12 hours difference between there and EST I believe China only has one Time Zone for the entire country unless I am mistaken.

Yup, that's what I said.

China does have one time zone. It used to have five.

phileysmiley wrote:

yeshuas wrote: Actually it is Saturday 4 AM in Beijing right now so it would be 12 hours difference between there and EST I believe China only has one Time Zone for the entire country unless I am mistaken. Yup, that's what I said. China does have one time zone. It used to have five.

LOL cross-post

I didn't see the opening ceremony but by all accounts it's the most spectacular ever! Hey they did invent gunpowder after all so the fireworks must have been amazing.

Yes, it was spectacular Graham and there was so much more than the fireworks there, lots of people power there too, some 20K! If you get a chance, do try to see it.

There are just no words to describe what it was like. I just got off the phone with my mom and she was utterly speechless as well. Neither of us could fathom how spectacular it was and the amount of work that must have gone into it. It was about five hours long.

We both agreed that we would buy the DVD if it comes out. I believe you can watch it online. It has to be seen to be believed, but you must watch it all (minus the parade) because the show is basically a retelling of the history of China in chronological order. Each segment of the show involves over 2000 performers, and no performer in any one segment performs in another one. As Augie said, there were over 20,000 performers altogether.

The floor of the stadium itself contained an LCD screen which was over 500 feet long. They performed on and around it. There was also a screen which ran completely around the entire stadium on the roof above the spectators. It was used as well so that the show took place literally from the bottom to the top. Of course, many parts of the show included fireworks which didn't just shoot off from the roof of the stadium but also from points surrounding the stadium miles away. The entire area of several square miles was used as a launching pad.

The budget probably exceeded the GNP of most of the world's nations.

phileysmiley wrote:

augie wrote: It has surprised me that NBC has paid huge money again and not even shown the opening ceremonies live. At 10 o'clock EST, all there is the infinitely stupid Today Show. Give them a bloody holiday man. I just don't get it! I actually had this convo this morning. The thing is, NBC pre-sells the commercial time for the opening ceremonies years in advance. The advertisers pay the big bucks based on the show being in prime time (when there is always a larger audience). If they show it live, or even if they show it twice, they lose a huge audience and, therefore, the advertisers won't pay as much. Yup. I actually did get to see it live on one of our Spanish channels lol.

I can agree, somewhat, with the money angle. All boils down to that eh?

Getting your Olympics fix online


I haven't tried any of this, but it may help someone.

augie wrote:

Getting your Olympics fix online I haven't tried any of this, but it may help someone.

Great find! Looks like it shouldn't be too difficult.

That last link looks useful, too.

Quote:

Terminally frustrated online viewers can try to soothe themselves by checking out photos and videos of The 50 Most Beautiful Women of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Perfect for all those long commercial breaks.

Geez, the basketball game between the US and China really worries me as the US is up by 35 points ATM in the 4th, they're scoring at will. Go Lietuva Go!