Citius Altius Fortius
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Posts posted by Citius Altius Fortius
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On 8/9/2021 at 12:00 PM, DannyelBrazil said:
During the years at the Forums I made a very special friend, Martin from Germany. He came to Rio 2016, we went to Maracanãzinho together watch female volleyball, he stayed few days at my home and it was one of the best days of my life. Martin is truly a gentleman and a special human being.
Boa noite @DannyelBrazil
I had some great times in Brazil - the Games, the city of Rio, visiting you any your wife and the fur kids! You and Pat are amazing people, who made me feel home in Sao Vicente!
On 8/9/2021 at 5:26 PM, yoshi said:And you're right, Martin is special. I went on a European train trip in autumn 2019 and met him in Hamburg for a cup of tea. I hope he's still ok - @Citius Altius Fortius? Finally...
I am very fine, @yoshi- I live in Vienna now with a partner and a pug!
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Well, I watched all Opening ceremonies from Sarajevo 1984 until yesterday - and I have to say I was kind of disappointed. The whole show made me very aware that these Games are not Olympics like we are used to know, but substitute Games...
There were some nice ideas for the segments - like the pictograms segment, but like Olympic2004 has already said it - after the first five you got it and it became boring to watch the last 45 ones... The film crew was "nice" as well, but somehow it didn't fit in the flow of the show...
There was just one segment which I really enjoyed: I liked it, how the logo was formed in the centre of the "crowd" of athletes.
Naomi Osaka looked more like she just came from the dentist than that she was chosen to lit the Olympic Flame...
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1 hour ago, StefanMUC said:
Iceland is of course going to do very very well this year. A BDSM act about hate that will prevail. Absolutely fantastic (though Spain and Portugal come close).
I esteem the Icelandic group as marketing stunt...
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I agree with you - there is no "winner" right a way - it will become very intense - it can happen that we will see a surprise (that a song will win, which nobody has in mind to win) like in 2011.
My two pennies about ESC 2019:
My TOP FIVE:
Italy
Portugal
Poland
Russia
Cyprus
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Well, the EU is telling the U.K. for two years “no single market à la carte”, what is the result of “Chequers” a single market à la carte... Won’t take long that it will be denied by the EU...
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5 hours ago, Rob. said:
This is a good read though...
That's an interesting read indeed...
I wonder if the Tories split in several parties - Brexit is such a contrary issue that I doubt that a party can be home of Remainers and Brexiteers...
There is a split running through the UK, which split neighbours, families, colleagues, etc. etc. - and even through the parts of the UK - I wouldn't be astonished if the UK will face a bad state crisis... -
Well, I wonder which option May will choose and will have to enforce in "Chequers":
- SM, CU and ECJ — no border for Northern Ireland
- FTA on goods but not on services - Northern Ireland stays in the single-market and customs union — hard border in the Irish Sea
- "No Deal" (Hard land border for Northern Ireland - break of GFA)
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I am glad that the football World Cup comes back to North America, but I hope DT isn't reelected in 2020 - I would feel strange when a WC takes place when one host country built a wall to another host country to keep another hosting nation out of its territory...
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17 hours ago, StefanMUC said:
I had an uneasy feeling already for some time, not only after the Mexico match...and then the "scandal" about the Özil/Gündogan pic with Erdogan didn't really help the spirit in the team either.
Then again, if four out of five recent WC winners crash in the group stage four years later, we're not in bad company :-)
Germany didn't play well at this World Cup - the Mannschaft didn't deserve to reach the last 16...
Congratulations to México and SVERIGE
One of my sweepstake reached the next ROUND - COME ONE SWEDEN!!! -
Looking forward to learn where the matches are played...
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1 minute ago, Sir Rols said:
I’ll draw your team when I do the second round picks tomorrow.
Everyone, don’t forget you all get another team tomorrow!
And what exactly DO you call a gay milkman?
Looking forward to my second team...
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Ohh I got Peru
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I am in also...
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I had been in Lisbon for Eurovision and it was FAB - it was really an amazing event!
I am looking forward to Israel next year! -
I liked the Opening Ceremony, but it didn't give me shivers down my spine due excitement - there were some nice visual things, but e.g. the Samsung cell-phone segment was a kind of low-point for me...
My highlights of the opening ceremony were the shirtless athlete from Tonga and the drone Olympic Rings... -
The flag bearers of the opening ceremonies are known - you can find them on wikipedia and everywhere else, but I am interested in the flag bearers of the closing ceremonies as well.
Does anybody have a source where you can find the flag bearers of the closing ceremony as well? Of course I am most interested in the flag bearers of Germany, Federal Republic of Germany, GDR, Saarland and Unified German Team most.
Here are the German flag bearers of the closing ceremony, which I found:
2016 - Sebastian Brendel
2014 - Felix Loch
2012 - Kristof Wilke
2010 - Magdalena Neuner
2008 - Katrin Wagner-Augustin
2006 - Claudia Pechstein
2004 - Kathrin Boron
2002 - Georg Hackl
2000 - Heike Drechsler
1998 - Gunda Niemann
1996 - Birgit Fischer
1994 - Claudia Pechstein
1992 (W) - Antje MiserskyI miss all flag bearers from 1908-1992 (summer)...
Who is able to help? -
On 22.12.2017 at 12:03 AM, Ripley said:
I agree that the UK government approach to future relations is probably not thought through as with everything else brexit related. However I think your perspective is very black and white. The reality is that the UK is not North Amaerican Canada or neutral Switzerland or a small state like Norway. There are things that the UK needs from the EU and vice versa.
What do you think how a Norwegian or a Swiss would react when they read that? I believe that it doesn't be restricted on the EU only - the UK placed itself into a corner in Europe -and in the world...
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I recommend to read this article - that is exactly what I meant with UK being a third country for the EU - the EU will treat the UK like any other third country. The UK-government will have to choose among the offers by the EU. It will become interesting to see how the UK is able to stick to the "Good Friday Agreement"...
POLITICO - EU to UK: You're not special -
53 minutes ago, Ripley said:
I don,t think the approach to Ireland since by the EU has been that intelligent either. They're insisting on sorting out border arrangements with Ireland before any discussion about the future trade relations with the EU. It's a bit bonkers if you ask me.
I agree on that, but I fear that a trade deal won't be able before March 2019 - it will take many years - the hard Breiteres haven't realised yet that they have illusions...
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10 minutes ago, Ripley said:
FPTP is an imperfect system which should be improved as they are rationalising the size of MP constituencies to make then more equal in terms of population size. PR is also an imperfect system - which always leads to coalition government and power sharing. Look what's happening in Germany as the coalition building is under way. It's all happening behind closed doors. CDU supporters are largely unaware of which policies the party will negotiate away in pursuit of power.
I am just in a hurry - therefore a very short remark...
In Germany we have a combination of both systems (FPTP and PR) - its called MMP - we have two votes at general elections: the first vote is according FPTP and the second vote is according PR. The second vote is the more important one since it decides the balance in the parliament and allows that all votes are represented in parliament (except the votes for parties with lower than 5% of all votes). -
16 hours ago, Ripley said:
These are uncharted waters for the EU - no member state has ever left. If its response to this is to just treat an ex member as a 3rd country then of course it is a liberty to do so. The reality is that due to geography, social and economic ties the UK is not just another 3rd country. We're in a situation where both sides are having to artificially create a reduced kind of relationship. When Ireland left the UK in the early 1900's there was a lot of pain and anger felt between the two sides - however a lot of practical measures were put in place to maintain freedom of movement (Common Travel Area) and Irish residents still had rights to participate economically and socially in the UK that went well beyond what other sovereign states were allowed. Paradoxically many of those historic agreements are at risk now we are leaving the EU.
It would be great if you can create such relationship, but that means that both sides have to make concessions, which is very unlikely since the Brexiteers have already made clear in the Brexit referendum campaign that they want to have the cake and eat it. A majority voted in the referendum that they want to leave the EU - at the moment is a "war" in the UK, what that really means - they can stay in the single market and in the custom union, but has to obey its rules (what they don't want). They don't want to be like Norway, since Norway obeys the rules also (and it is furthermore unlikely that Norway accepts UK in the EFTA). The EU just says we don't want to speak about the future until the divorce isn't handled which is very normal - you can built up a future, when the past isn't settled...
You mentioned Ireland and the UK - it is tragic for the people on the island Ireland, but I think also that the people in England and Wales didn't think a minute about what the result of a "leave" vote will mean for Ireland and the UK. -
16 hours ago, Ripley said:
You talk like the British or other members have not been raising the democratic deficit in the EU - we / they have done for years. The problem is that some (Germany included) want greater democracy at the EU level - whereas others (Britain included) don't believe there is a demos at the European level. Two opposing views and the response is just "drift".
For me is it a contradiction to say on one hand that there is a democratic deficit in the EU and on the other hand to say we don't want greater democracy at the EU level? You can't call it deficit when you don't want to change that...
I read a lot of discussions about Brexit related issues on the comment pages of British newspaper in this last year and I got the impression that we use the same word "democracy", but mean something different: e.g. FTPT is in my point of view not really democratic, since the MPs require different number of votes to get into parliament, which means that votes of the people have a different value in the different constituencies...
It showed me that you have to go more into the details when you are talking about democracy... -
7 hours ago, arwebb said:
It's in the EU's own interests to be fair to us but, rather like the pre-referendum talks, they don't seem to know what's best for them.
... “fair” is very subjective - how does the UK wanted to be treated?
I ask that question since UK can call the "eat the cake and have it" approach as "fair" - which isn't fair at all in my pov. When we talk about fairness we have to talk about that fairness works only when it works both ways... The UK shouldn’t believe that the Europeans didn’t recognise that they were blamed for every little problem in the UK (and I mean the citizens of the EU living in the UK - we don't blame the UK-citizens, who live here (or we don't call them immigrants) for every problem in our countries) or that the EU-institutions were linked with totalitarianism, which is just nonsense... (the EU structures didn't fall from the heaven - the UK had every opportunity to veto it - but didn’t do it - the same is valid for every EU-rule).Norway didn’t enter the EU due a referendum - in the meantime Norway and the EU found an agreement (to which the UK agreed also). That might happen with the UK and EU as well, but the EU will treat the UK like Norway - it has to be fair... The Norwegian seem to be happy with the agreement - why should the EU differ between the UK and Norway?
It was clear before the referendum in June 2016 that the EU will treat a third country like any other third country - why should the UK be treated differently?
In my point of view the UK decided in an advisory referendum to leave the political and economical structures of Europe - the previous parliament said it will take it as mandatory - it must had been clear for everybody in the UK that this will have a huge impact on everybody’s life in the UK.
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On 12.10.2017 at 8:20 PM, Ripley said:
I can feel the hostility building in the UK towards the EU. People are starting to view the EU as something threatening and unreasonable. Even those who voted remain like myself.
I wonder what the EU should do that this feeling isn't building up in the UK?
The UK voted to become a third country for the EU - this will have consequences - the EU is 'just' the bearer of bad news and therefore much easier to blame than to look onto the source.
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Past members
in General Off-Topic Discussion
Posted · Edited by Citius Altius Fortius
Lee, Davey and Citizen-Seth are doing fine