I think I saw a “Beijing 2022” something or other painted on one of them
Yes exactly. They’ve done that with the big electrical boxes on street corners in the college town next to where I teach. It looks good.
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Yeah I saw that. Missed opportunity to showcase some local artists or whatever.
Heard last night on one of the Olympic channels, but haven’t seen elsewhere, the issue with the ROC team skating drug scandal was not a diuretic, but some sort of drug that lets you continue to complete with a much higher heart rate than your body could normally handle and it was the 15 year old female skater that was caught.
Did find this quip on Reuters:
Russian media reported on Wednesday that Valieva had returned a positive test, with newspapers RBC and Kommersant naming the drug as Trimetazidine, which is typically used to treat angina.
Russian teen skater Valieva trains after reports of failed drug test | Reuters
Drug is Trimetazidine, typically used for angina.
Russian media is standing behind Velieva:
Prominent journalist Vasily Konov, deputy general producer at Russian sports channel Match-TV, said without citing sources that the sample in question had been taken two months ago.
“The drug trimetazidine does not help an athlete in any way. At all. It was found in one single sample in December. A minuscule amount. Nothing in her samples before or since,” he wrote on social media.
But
Trimetazidine, or TMZ, works by increasing blood flow to the heart and limiting rapid swings in blood pressure. It has been on WADA’s list of prohibited substances since 2014.
“It is not a drug that you would take accidentally, not something you would ordinarily be prescribed, and not something that you would expect a 15-year-old to be prescribed,” Howman said.
Seems obvious to me it could help performance. And also that there’s no way a 15 year old healthy enough to compete in the Olympics is taking it for medical reasons. I suppose there’s always the question of a false positive.
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Arena ice and dedicated ice behave totally differently for a bunch of reasons. Mostly because the ice is kept colder but also in the way the ice is maintained and prepared. In an arena, a zamboni is used to smooth out the ice before the ice is pebbled and also after to get rid of the pebble so that people can skate on it again. The ice left behind by the zamboni is not perfectly flat which creates some wonkiness on the sheet.
Dedicated ice does not use a zamboni. Instead, there is a little machine called a scraper. Periodically, (the timing depends upon the club) the ice will be scrapped to get rid of excess pebble and help the ice perform better. Many clubs will scrap once a day to prep the ice for the games played that day. However, this can lead to some unevenness in sheet which can cause runs and falls in the ice. So periodically, like three or four times a season (maybe more if there are a lot of bonspiels at the club), they will flood the ice which is basically covering the entire ice house with a thin layer of water. Water is self leveling so it recreates the flat surface that is desired for play.
Pebbling is done with a thing called a pebbling can. Basically a big container of water with a short hose. At the end of the hose is the wand and pebbling head which looks a lot like an upside down shower head. The wand is swept back and forth in front of the pebbler (the person doing the pebbling) which creates, basically, a whole bunch of raindrops falling on the ice. The droplets freeze as they hit the ice and form little bumps called the pebble. Once the ice has been pebbled, most clubs will use a device called a nipper which is a blade that shaves the top off of the little bumps and smooths them out a bit. Some clubs don’t have a nipper, so instead they will put one set of stones in a little wooden box with a handle and push that across the entire sheet. This is called breaking the ice and accomplishes a similar smoothing of the pebble.
I’ve been curling for quite some time so if you have any other questions, let me know. 
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Watching the men’s figure skating long program.
Wow, that French skater is sexy.
The Italian gave a really beautiful performance.
Haven’t seen the final set of skaters, yet. I’m watching them warm up, now, and they look really good. I’m amazed at how good that all are. It’s interesting. Downhill skiing looks pretty much the same as it did forty years ago. Figure skating has transformed into a new sport.
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Thanks @Snake ! I have been asked to pebble our ice (skating) arena ice before playing, but the rest was good info for me. I haven’t played on dedicated curling ice but will someday I assume.
I don’t know wth the judges were watching for Hirano’s second run.
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Thank goodness he got in that third run. He’s amazing.
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What’s with the plastic pandas?
Our club had a pretty strict no pebbling unless you were an ice maker rule for awhile. Now they’ve trained up a bunch of people but I never learned since my third is one of the ice makers.
I’ve bonspieled against a lot of curlers who come from arena ice clubs and I’ve gone to arena ice clubs before. I recommend going to a dedicated facility for a spiel some time. You won’t regret it. If you need any recommendations, let me know.
thanks for the offer. i know of 3 locally that people go to and all rave about it compared to the arena ice I have used. when I get more free time, I will be back playing. but that seems farther off than I like to say out loud.
Another shout out to snowboard cross. The best competition I’ve seen so far.
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Happy for the Americans finally getting their golds. Now they can both retire on a high note.
I don’t think I’ve even heard of snowboard cross before. But that was really fun to watch.
USA men’s hockey vs Canada. Was a fun game to watch.
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Don’t spoil it! I haven’t seen the third period yet.
I altered my post before originally posting to make it vague. 3rd period was awesome.
I found the game to be played so damn fast. Was cool.
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