Hurricanes Lounge XXXIV: I've had it with these mother f***ing snakes...

[Surrounded By Ahos]

I've been browsing the Olympics, including women's beach volleyball. Does it jump out at anyone else how skimpy the bottoms they're wearing are? I mean, this is still a high level athletic event, seems like they'd be uncomfortable? I don't even find it particularly sexy, just more of a curiosity.

I haven’t watched any of the Olympics, but I read something about one of the female volleyball teams getting fined because they decided to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms.

which just seems ridiculous to me. Let them wear what they feel most comfortable in.


Or go super old school and make everybody compete naked. Either or.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

I haven’t watched any of the Olympics, but I read something about one of the female volleyball teams getting fined because they decided to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms.

which just seems ridiculous to me. Let them wear what they feel most comfortable in.


Or go super old school and make everybody compete naked. Either or.

Pink the musician offered to pay their fine because they wanted to wear shorts instead of the bottoms everyone else is wearing

 

[MinJaBen]

Or go super old school and make everybody compete naked. Either or.

•thinks about the shot put fellas…

“I’m going with let them wear the clothes they want.”

 

[LakeLivin]

I haven’t watched any of the Olympics, but I read something about one of the female volleyball teams getting fined because they decided to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms.

which just seems ridiculous to me. Let them wear what they feel most comfortable in.


Or go super old school and make everybody compete naked. Either or.

It was beach team handball. I knew about team handball but this was the first I became aware that there was a beach variety, let alone that it was an official Olympic sport.

Edit: not an Olympic sport, apparently the Norwegian controversy happened just prior to the Olympics and I lumped it in when I heard about it.

 

[Roboturner913]

I guess I don't get the whole outrage over objectifying female athletes...I don't think people, even red blooded super horny American male people*....are really slobbering over their TV screens at Olympic athletes wearing bikinis. Not in a world where you can find far more salacious material to ogle over at the click of a button.

I do think they should be able to wear whatever uniform they are most comfortable in, whatever that may be. Assuming the object is to win the game.

* - I say this as a red blooded super horny American male people

 

[Lempo]

I don't think people, even red blooded super horny American male people*....are really slobbering over their TV screens at Olympic athletes wearing bikinis. Not in a world where you can find far more salacious material to ogle over at the click of a button.

Meanwhile, the people in charge of beach handball have seen it fit to explicitly put it in the rules that women's sport is played in bikini bottoms.

"Female athletes must wear bikini bottoms ... with a close fit and cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg," the rules state. "The side width must be of a maximum of 10 centimeters."

As people here have noted, they didn't even know this sport existed. Many a sports in the world competing for viewers and sponsorship money, and you have to have yours stick out somehow. Bare skin is their chosen way.

Or was until the Norwegians ruined the gig.

The base needs work much more subtle than your point on there being more salacious material available lets on. When NCB does their programming for the Olympic boadcast, they probably will choose women's beach handball over cayaking. When you clickity-click-click on the remote for Olympic broadcasts, this is where you pause.

Maybe you're repressing you sexuality and the facade of sports gives you the needed plausible deniability to oggle away. Or maybe your internal Harvey Weinstein feels warm feel when sportsy girls get subtly enforced into these rules that are oh so essential for the integrity of the sport. Them internet girls who need their daily dose aren't much of a challenge.

Beach handball is not an Olympic sport btw. Beach volleyball with two girl team in bikinis is. Easy to confuse. And easy to see the rationale behind why some people thought there needs to be beach handball in addition to the normal variety handball.

"It's what fun-loving bikini-wearing young people normally do as a normal beach fun activity on hit summer days, and it was so popular that it just happened to become a genuine sport..." with federations and sponsorship deals and the whole she-bang. Yeah, right. But that's the implied story they're pretty much selling.

Remove the bikinis and what you got is normal handball (with maybe some minor tweaks to justify the existence of the bikini version) and two sets of handball federations with sudden excess of well-paid people in suits.

 

[Lempo]

On a tangetial note, men's regular handball is great source of mirth in Finland. As it happens, the two hegemony teams in the sport are named Cocks and Dicken, and the news report headlines on the matches between the two are exactly as creative as you would hope for.

"The hard ones at it:"

 

[tarheelhockey]

I have watched a total of about 10 seconds of women’s team handball in my life.

During that 10 seconds, someone winged the ball right off the goalie’s face from about 5 feet out. She stood in there and took it like a champ too.

 

[MrazeksVengeance]

I have watched a total of about 10 seconds of women’s team handball in my life.

During that 10 seconds, someone winged the ball right off the goalie’s face from about 5 feet out. She stood in there and took it like a champ too.

Standard handball is incredibly tough sport. Goalkeepers and facehits… standard occurrence.

 

[Negan4Coach]

No, transmissibility and lethality tend to be inversely correlated.

Right. But aren’t they telling us now the delta variant is more transmissible and more potent?

 

[Lempo]

Lots of visiting names viewing the Hamilton signing thread.

 

[Roboturner913]

Remove the bikinis and what you got is normal handball

that's not what would be on my mind at that juncture....

oh shit I just invalidated my whole argument

carry on

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

Tried to renew my plate online yesterday. It used to be a simple form, but they had to go and add that chat bot because reasons. Chat bot tells me my license plate and title number do not exist. It's Saturday, so nobody answers the phone. It's the due date and I can't renew.

Today, I try again and the system magically has no trouble finding it. Only now I'm overdue so they're trying to extract a late fee from me.

f*** you, DMV, and f*** your shitty chat bot. I'm not paying your late fee.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Right. But aren’t they telling us now the delta variant is more transmissible and more potent?

I mean, sure, the press is saying all kinds of scary stuff, and badly conflating complex issues, as they do. But from what I've seen, there's no clear evidence yet that Delta is actually more deadly, only that it is much more transmissible, and the transmissibility is the most likely factor in both higher lethality among the unvaccinated, and more breakthrough infections among the vaccinated.

It's mostly math that a virus can only become so lethal before it kills too many hosts to spread effectively. The goal of the virus is to propagate, not to kill people; killing the host is an unintended side effect.

Anyway, vaccinations bring the lethality of this thing way down, and you can have one if you want it, and that's basically the best we'll ever do at this point, and I got mine, so I'm mostly done thinking about it.

 

[Roboturner913]

If it is more deadly, it's by a percentage point or two, nothing to be super worried about on that front.

But, as we know, death is not the only consequence of COVID. Just like the original H1N1 pandemic of 1918, it's going to have significant long-term health effects in a lot of people who survived the initial infection. And all the financial and mental health consequences of extended hospital stays and long-term chronic health conditions.

What I'm really concerned about what the variants are going to look like after 2-3 more cycles of mutation. From what I read it's essentially a 50/50 proposition: either the mutations are going to become less lethal and less transmissible, or they're going to get worse and worse and rage out of control.

We simply aren't going to have enough people getting vaccinated and/or practicing proper health precautions; we're too "free" for that. So we're basically at the mercy of the virus and we have no idea what it's going to do next.

My dad and sister remain in ICU, no end in sight for either. This shit is no joke.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Anyway, vaccinations bring the lethality of this thing way down, and you can have one if you want it, and that's basically the best we'll ever do at this point, and I got mine, so I'm mostly done thinking about it.

I have mine too and would love to be done thinking about it. What grinds my gears is that not-thinking-about-it is going to be impossible as long as a huge chunk of the population continues to tear pages off the 365 Excuses Not To Vaccinate desk calendar.

Some people have medical and religious reasons, and some people are just tinfoil-hat crazy, and I get that we won't reach those folks. But beyond those groups, we've passed the point of rational resistance. Buck the **** up and get it done.

 

[tarheelhockey]

My dad and sister remain in ICU, no end in sight for either. This shit is no joke.

Ugh, sorry to hear that. Good vibes for them.

 

[LakeLivin]

I guess I don't get the whole outrage over objectifying female athletes...I don't think people, even red blooded super horny American male people*....are really slobbering over their TV screens at Olympic athletes wearing bikinis. Not in a world where you can find far more salacious material to ogle over at the click of a button.

I do think they should be able to wear whatever uniform they are most comfortable in, whatever that may be. Assuming the object is to win the game.

* - I say this as a red blooded super horny American male people

Meanwhile, the people in charge of beach handball have seen it fit to explicitly put it in the rules that women's sport is played in bikini bottoms.



As people here have noted, they didn't even know this sport existed. Many a sports in the world competing for viewers and sponsorship money, and you have to have yours stick out somehow. Bare skin is their chosen way.

Or was until the Norwegians ruined the gig.

The base needs work much more subtle than your point on there being more salacious material available lets on. When NCB does their programming for the Olympic boadcast, they probably will choose women's beach handball over cayaking. When you clickity-click-click on the remote for Olympic broadcasts, this is where you pause.

Maybe you're repressing you sexuality and the facade of sports gives you the needed plausible deniability to oggle away. Or maybe your internal Harvey Weinstein feels warm feel when sportsy girls get subtly enforced into these rules that are oh so essential for the integrity of the sport. Them internet girls who need their daily dose aren't much of a challenge.

Beach handball is not an Olympic sport btw. Beach volleyball with two girl team in bikinis is. Easy to confuse. And easy to see the rationale behind why some people thought there needs to be beach handball in addition to the normal variety handball.

"It's what fun-loving bikini-wearing young people normally do as a normal beach fun activity on hit summer days, and it was so popular that it just happened to become a genuine sport..." with federations and sponsorship deals and the whole she-bang. Yeah, right. But that's the implied story they're pretty much selling.

Remove the bikinis and what you got is normal handball (with maybe some minor tweaks to justify the existence of the bikini version) and two sets of handball federations with sudden excess of well-paid people in suits.

While I'd like to be politically correct (and maybe a better human being, lol) and say that looks are irrelevant to me when it comes to watching women's sports, I'd be lying if I did so. Looks aren't all that matters, but I notice. [and for the record I have female friends with a similar perspective towards male athletes] But my impression when I saw the bikini bottoms on the beach volleyball players wasn't "that's hot!" it was "man, they look like they'd be uncomfortable to play in!". But what do I know? I saw a couple articles where female beach volleyball players basically said the bikini bottoms are the most comfortable to play in due to factors like heat, sand, and fit.
Why do beach volleyball players wear bikinis? Silver medalist explains

Olympics 2021: Why do beach volleyball players still wear bikinis?

Beyond functionality, just out of curiosity I googled the the term "objectify" and clicked on an interesting article that talks about empowerment vs. objectification:
How Can You Tell if You're Being Sexually Empowered or Objectified? Ask Yourself This Simple Question
Tldr: it asserts that what differentiates the two is where the power lies. If you buy that, we know that sex sells, so if women athletes want to maximize the money they can earn by encouraging a sexy image for their sport, that's one thing. If it's the administration that's doing it, that's another.

April Ross, three-time Olympian: “I have always felt like when you get somebody drawn in, however you get them into beach volleyball, they fall in love with the sport. So, hopefully that happens also.”

I also learned that the beach volleyball women have a lot of flexibility when it comes to what they wear. It's the beach handball federation that currently requires women to wear bikini bottoms. Seems like that needs to change.

 

[Roboturner913]

Some people have medical and religious reasons, and some people are just tinfoil-hat crazy, and I get that we won't reach those folks.

I think a large number of these people simply cannot deal with the reality and horror of it all, so they console themselves with crap like "it's no worse than a flu" then they see that echoed on social media and latch onto it. They're not deliberately bad people, they're just weak-minded or emotionally unable to let themselves see the truth about it.

 

[Roboturner913]

I used to watch a lot of late night music videos on BET in the mid 2000s.

After that, seeing women's beach volleyball butts is like going from black tar heroin to CBD gummies....you can't just un-climb that mountain

 

[LakeLivin]

I have watched a total of about 10 seconds of women’s team handball in my life.

During that 10 seconds, someone winged the ball right off the goalie’s face from about 5 feet out. She stood in there and took it like a champ too.

I haven't seen it at all, but based on the apparent athleticism involved if it was in the Olympics I'd definitely check it out.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

If it is more deadly, it's by a percentage point or two, nothing to be super worried about on that front.

But, as we know, death is not the only consequence of COVID. Just like the original H1N1 pandemic of 1918, it's going to have significant long-term health effects in a lot of people who survived the initial infection. And all the financial and mental health consequences of extended hospital stays and long-term chronic health conditions.

What I'm really concerned about what the variants are going to look like after 2-3 more cycles of mutation. From what I read it's essentially a 50/50 proposition: either the mutations are going to become less lethal and less transmissible, or they're going to get worse and worse and rage out of control.

We simply aren't going to have enough people getting vaccinated and/or practicing proper health precautions; we're too "free" for that. So we're basically at the mercy of the virus and we have no idea what it's going to do next.

My dad and sister remain in ICU, no end in sight for either. This shit is no joke.

Awful about your dad and sister.

Re: getting worse, it is possible that they get more lethal and more transmissible, but those two factors are separate, and viruses always optimize for transmissibility; lethality is a side effect, because there's no advantage to evolving higher lethality, and at a certain point it's a disadvantage. This Atlantic article probably covers it best of all the pieces I've seen:

Why No One Is Sure If Delta Is Deadlier

Re: being at the mercy of the virus, that's certainly far less true now that we have effective vaccinations than it was before. The data is still clear: vaccinations are very effective, both at preventing serious illness and at preventing spread (though not as good at preventing spread as against the Alpha variant).

One ray of hope is that wherever the Delta variant is hospitalizing people the most, vaccination rates are also currently going up the most. So people may be selfish and lazy, but they're not completely stupid.

 

[Lempo]

My dad and sister remain in ICU, no end in sight for either. This shit is no joke.

I remember you told everyone in your family got it except yout granma... the rest managed to fare out of it better?

 

[MinJaBen]

My dad and sister remain in ICU, no end in sight for either. This shit is no joke.

I hope they get well soon. Are they ventilated or still able to just use supplemental O2?

 

[Roboturner913]

I remember you told everyone in your family got it except yout granma... the rest managed to fare out of it better?

Everybody else got through it OK, although my uncle and his wife both had to be hospitalized it was only a 3-4 day stay for them. My dad has been in ICU for almost two weeks but is slowly improving. My sister is worse than that. Both should survive but it will be a long road back; my dad's doctor says he may not be 100% for a year or more and may never recover fully.

I hope they get well soon. Are they ventilated or still able to just use supplemental O2?

Not a ventilator, but a bipap machine. Which as I understand it, is basically a ventilator except the interface is a mask instead of intubation. Less chance of infections, etc.