Whine Country: Athletes and Audiences Follow Media's Lead in Sochi

We’ve all heard the complaints out of Sochi from the American media out by now: bad water, bad hotel rooms, bad gay perspective, bad (balmy) weather, and bad opening ceremony.

Some athletes appear to be following the media’s lead and going all-in on the complaint route as well. Bode Miller fails to medal in the men’s downhill; he blames the soft snow created by warm weather (which is similar to conditions he won in four years ago in Vancouver, but no matter). Snowboarder Shaun White doesn’t make it back to the podium as well, he blames the Slurpee-like half pipe (where a 15-year-old from Japan had no issue with in beating him).

But the gold medal for whining goes to the U.S. speed skating team, who took major issue with its uniform sponsor and supplier, Under Armour, which apparently was preventing anyone on the team from finishing higher than 7th place thus far. It even prompted UA CEO Kevin Plank to go on Bloomberg TV to address the issue.

As the old saying goes, a good craftsman never blames his tools. So after doing just that, the team declares it is switching back to its old Under Armour uniforms it used with more success during training. And on cue, its best skater (Shani Davis) finished…11th. What’s next? An emergency delivery from Nike? Skinny skating?

The moaning doesn’t end with the media or some athletes, either; it now extends to those watching the games as well. The unescapable biggie is the criticism NBC is getting over showing events in primetime on tape delay. But the Peacock has every right to satisfy its sponsors and maximize its ratings, and with Sochi 11-14 hours ahead of the continental U.S., what exactly is NBC supposed to do? Another doozy comes from those who bellyache about learning Olympic results via Twitter, ESPN or cable news before the tape delay broadcast occurs. Is it too much to ask to avoid those outlets or covering ears or eyes if the element of surprise is really that important?

As the former Republican Senator Phil Gramm once infamously said back in 2008, “We have sort of become a nation of whiners.”

No kidding.

Just watch the Olympics or read or watch all of the stories about it.

The media complains.

Some athletes follow suit.

And audiences are never satisfied.

Gramm was wrong about one thing:

We are not “sort of” a nation of whiners.

We just are.

Source: Mediaite
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Muslim group prayers for earthquake at Sochi Olympics

A militant Islamist group has urged followers to pray for an earthquake in Sochi during the Winter Olympics to avenge Muslims who died there fighting "Russian infidels".

The appeal was made by a local branch of the Caucasus Emirate, a group which is waging an insurgency for an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus and called on supporters last year to attack the Games.

"All who are able to read this letter can supplicate that the Almighty destroys the land in Sochi with an earthquake, and makes the infidels 'drunk of water' before Hell and drown in a flood!," said the appeal posted online on Monday.

"The Games of the atheists and pagans! The pigs are so arrogant that they decided to host the Games on the ground where our ancestors shed their blood to defend Islam and Muslims. Even the blind can see it!"

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who waged a war in Chechnya to try to rein in separatists in the North Caucasus, has staked his personal and political prestige on the Games.

But some of the events are being held in territory that was the homeland of ethnic Circassians until they were expelled in the 19th century.

Islamist leaders say this amounts to performing "Satanic dances" on the graves of Muslims killed fighting Russian forces and one, Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov, urged followers last year to prevent the Games going ahead.

"We know how the Russian infidels - those who we have been fighting for centuries in the Caucasus - have become arrogant and decided to hold the Satanic Games on the ground of the companions who brought Islam," said the new appeal, issued by the Ingushetia media branch of the Caucasus Emirate.

"May Allah give the infidels in Sochi the last earthquake of their lives," it said.

Ingushetia lies about 650 km (400 miles) by road from Sochi across the Caucasus mountains.

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GOP Rep. McCaul: High Degree of Probability of Explosion During Sochi Olympics

Representative and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Mike McCaul (R-TX) caught Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace off-guard when he said Sunday morning that there was a “high degree of probability” of an explosion somewhere in Russia during the Sochi Olympic games.
“There’s a high degree of probability that something will detonate, something will go off,” McCaul said. “But I do think it’s probably, most likely going to happen outside of the Ring of Steel at the Olympic Village.”
“You’re saying, as the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, you think there is a high probability there will be some explosion outside the Ring of Steel?” Wallace asked.
“I hope I’m wrong in this assessment, but you’re talking about an area of the world where suicide bombers go off all the time,” McCaul replied. “The fact is, right now, the eyes of the world are upon these Olympics. The Chechen extremists know this. They want to make a global statement. They want to make a jihad statement. And what better time to do this than right now?”
“Remember, they don’t have to hit in the Ring of Steel, at the Olympic Village,” McCaul added. “As long as they hit somewhere in Russia, that, to them, is a victory.”

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How to Watch the Sochi Olympics Live Streaming

The 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia officially began Friday, February 7th. And while NBC will be showing as much of the games as they possibly can during their prime time schedule over the next couple of weeks, in order to watch much of the action live, your best bet is to do it online. But unlike Fox Sports’ ultimate decision to live stream Super Bowl XLVIII free without restrictions, NBC will be requiring that you have a cable subscription (or access to one) in order to watch all 98 medal events live.

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WATCH: Experience the Insane Sochi Snowboard Course That Shaun White Refuses to Ride

On Wednesday, U.S. snowboard star Shaun White announced he will not be competing in the Olympic debut of the snowboard slope style event. The athlete’s announcement came after his sustained a wrist injury while taking a practice run on the course. Another competitor from Norway suffered a broken collar bone on the same course this week.
“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in half pipe for Team USA,” White told NBC News in a statement. “The difficult decision to forego slope style is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slope style event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of.”
To show off just how crazy the slope style course is, Russian Olympian Alexey Sobolev wore a portable GoPro camera on a recent practice run. So now you can experience what is turning into what is certainly one of the most dangerous Olympic events this year.

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NBC's Richard Engel: My Devices Were Hacked Almost Immediately in Sochi

How bad should people expect security to be in Sochi during the Winter Olympics? Last night, NBC News’ Richard Engel put it thusly: “The State Department warned that travelers should have no expectation of privacy, even in their hotel rooms.” And Engel conducted an experiment that resulted in his electronic devices getting hacked “almost immediately.”
Engel enlisted help to set up a hacking sting involving brand-new, untouched devices and getting a completely fake identity that was ingrained completely on the two laptops and the smartphone. As soon as he took out the smartphone to browse in public, Engel said, “Almost immediately, we were hacked.”
Hackers can “tap and record” people’s phone calls, and it took them “less than one minute to pounce” and probe the cyber defenses of the computers Engel brought. All of this adds up to one very important thing: if you are planning to go to Sochi for the Winter Olympics, for God’s sake, leave the phone at home and take a disposable camera.

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