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Olympic Gold Medals a Whopping 1.34% Gold

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Renegade:
You'd think that with the massive amount spent on security and missile systems, they'd be able to afford to actually make the Olympic gold medals, well, umm... gold. 1.34% gold just seems a tad, umm... cheap. :P

http://www.prisonplanet.com/austerity-at-the-olympics-each-gold-medal-contains-1-34-gold.html

As every Olympic athlete knows, size matters. The London 2012 medals are the largest ever in terms of both weight and diameter – almost double the medals from Beijing. However, just as equally well-known is that quality beats quantity and that is where the current global austerity, coin-clipping, devaluation-fest begins. The 2012 gold is 92.5 percent silver, 6.16 copper and… 1.34 percent gold, with IOC rules specifying that it must contain 550 grams of high-quality silver and a whopping 6 grams of gold. The resulting medallion is worth about $500. For the silver medal, the gold is replaced with more copper, for a $260 bill of materials. The bronze medal is 97 percent copper, 2.5 percent zinc and 0.5 percent tin. Valued at about $3, you might be able to trade one for a bag of chips in Olympic park if you skip the fish.
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I suppose that the winners will have to endorse Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Nike, and the like in order to get their payday.

40hz:
Not to take anything away from the athletes themselves, but when it comes to the modern Olympics and the IOC, there's considerably less there that's noble than meets the eye. I'd suggest the composition of the winners' medals rather nicely symbolizes that. Much like Douglas Adams' Milliways (i.e. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe) which he characterized as a place "where little expense was spared to create the impression that no expense was spared."
 8)

SeraphimLabs:
I'm more alarmed by the strictness of copyright enforcement over the 2012 games.

Was always under the impression that the Olympics were supposed to be a global event to promote peace and prosperity, as well as some good clean sporting fun.

But this? I can't even enjoy them because I can't get cable TV here, and nobody on the internet has succeeded in uploading more than a few seconds worth of opening ceremony clips without attracting the copyright banhammer.

nosh:
Meanwhile, someone trolled the Indian contingent.  ;D  I'm more embarrassed about the official who claims she "hogged the limelight" and needs an apology.

Also, TMZ decided to be subtle about things...   ;D
Spoiler

MilesAhead:
Hmm, I kind of lost interest after watching the Olympics in China. Not only did they abandon a perfectly fine scoring system for gymnastics(perfectly fine meaning a person could understand it without consulting a professional) but the position of judge for the Women's Gymnastics became a "no show job."  Nearly every contest was determined by falls off the beam or uneven bars, and stepping out of bounds on the floor exercise.  IOW, the judges were taken out of the equation.  Didn't matter if they took a tenth off for this balance bauble and not for that. The mandatory 5 tenths deductions for falls and step-outs determined the results.

Instead of trying to calculate levels of difficulty and some jazz about a possible max scroe of 15.77588991112 I just counted the falls for each team.  The team with the fewest falls won.

Kind of reminded me of watching World Team Tennis.  There's more time and effort involved introducing the players and playing hyped up music than in the actual tennis played. No-ad scoring and some retarded scheme where number of games won(real tennis is all about winning sets) may determine the winner.  I can understand retired players and up and comers may need a cash cow. But I sure as hell don't want to waste my time watching that crap.

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