Australia's cycling performance in Beijing

On Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:47:02 -0700, theo wrote:

You elect a government, they govern. I'd rather they spent it all on
pensioners (checking retirement date of 1/7/09) :-)

I'm not that selfish, but an increase would be nice. Lets face it, if the
government wanted to inject money into the economy, giving it to
pensioners would be the most efficent way.

However, stuff like more free science degrees comes to mind.


We do very well indeed on a relatively small budget.

Lean and mean always works best.

On Aug 20, 4:10 pm, TimC -
astro.swin.edu.au wrote:
On 2008-08-20, Brendo (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:



We could also tithe people supported through the AIS for a percentage of
future income in certain areas, e.g product endorsement, future winnings.

Good point. My understanding is that if you are an AIS athlete, you
get your training done and science stuff done for free. It is your
full time job, and all the costs are borne by the Taxpayer (or as Kev
puts it, the Working Families). That being said, if I was proved wrong
it would not be a great surprise.

IF this is the case, why can't we (the Taxpayer) expect a $$ return on
our investment?

We will, just you wait. When the mining sector collapses and the
dollar falls through the floor, we'll be able to trade those gold
medals in for beans.

--
TimC
C Code.
C Code Run.
Run, Code, RUN!
PLEASE!!!! --unknown

mmmmm, beans!!

Brendo

In article ,
TimC wrote:

We will, just you wait. When the mining sector collapses and the
dollar falls through the floor, we'll be able to trade those gold
medals in for beans.

There are only 7 grams of gold in a gold medal, but it is Australian
gold.

Don't get excited just yet about how many beans you will be able to buy
but the hot tip is that gold is about to surge in price because demand
for bullion is currently very strong. (Just don't buy a few kilos 'cause
I said so)

cheers,
20cents

On Aug 20, 4:03*pm, terryc wrote:
On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:10:42 -0700, theo wrote:
Are you suggesting we go back to amateurs only? That would remove all people being paid
to play sport, Including those employed by the AIS. There would be no-
one in our current team, and no medals for us to say _we_ won.

So?
I think some "sports" have become bottomless pits for money. We are a
small nation and for us to try and match the funding available in
contries with populations one or two orders of magnitude greater is
just ludicrous.

I'd also prefer to see the money spent in other areas rather than
subsidising the production of entertainment for the masses.

If people really feel that strongly about funding for their sport,
then they can chink the collection tin in their LBS, etc.

We could also tithe people supported through the AIS for a percentage of
future income in certain areas, e.g product endorsement, future winnings.

Why not just include them in HECS (or whatever it is called this year)
like everyone else who gets taxpayer funded training at taxpayer
funded institutions for their chosen profession?

The surgeon who saves your life by taking out your appendix before it
ruptures has to do it. Why not the swimmer who earns squillions in
endorsements just because they can get from one end of a pool to the
other faster than anyone else and look good on the cover of the New
Idea?

phillip brown

On Aug 21, 9:27*am, phillip brown wrote:
On Aug 20, 4:03*pm, terryc wrote:

We could also tithe people supported through the AIS for a percentage of
future income in certain areas, e.g product endorsement, future winnings.

Why not just include them in HECS (or whatever it is called this year)
like everyone else who gets taxpayer funded training at taxpayer
funded institutions for their chosen profession?

Sure, but there are few stars earning good money among the people at
AIS. From the majority there is no return.

The surgeon who saves your life by taking out your appendix before it
ruptures has to do it. *Why not the swimmer who earns squillions in
endorsements just because they can get from one end of a pool to the
other faster than anyone else and look good on the cover of the New
Idea?

If we, as a country, want the warm glow of being near the top of the
medal tally every fourth year, we have to understand that it doesn't
come free.
How much we should invest in that, in education, in road safety, or in
pensioners, is a matter of ontinueing debate.

Speaking of Road safety, some report touted in the newspaper this week
says speed and alcohol are minor causes, the vast majority of
accidents are caused by inattention. How do we get a revenue stream
from inattention? Too hard to measure, we'll just concentrate on
speed.

Theo

On Aug 21, 12:13*pm, theo wrote:
On Aug 21, 9:27*am, phillip brown wrote:

On Aug 20, 4:03*pm, terryc wrote:
We could also tithe people supported through the AIS for a percentage of
future income in certain areas, e.g product endorsement, future winnings.

Why not just include them in HECS (or whatever it is called this year)
like everyone else who gets taxpayer funded training at taxpayer
funded institutions for their chosen profession?

Sure, but there are few stars earning good money among the people at
AIS. From the majority there is no return.

Thats how HECS repayment works now - only kicks in once you earn more
than certain $$$$. So those who do earn the big bucks get to
contribute back to the taxpayer for all the assistance that got them
the big bucks.


The surgeon who saves your life by taking out your appendix before it
ruptures has to do it. *Why not the swimmer who earns squillions in
endorsements just because they can get from one end of a pool to the
other faster than anyone else and look good on the cover of the New
Idea?

If we, as a country, want the warm glow of being near the top of the
medal tally every fourth year, we have to understand that it doesn't
come free.
How much we should invest in that, in education, in road safety, or in
pensioners, is a matter of ontinueing debate.

Figures suggest anywhere from $5m to $40m per gold medal

ie http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008...dal-price.html


Theo

phillip brown

On Aug 21, 1:30*pm, phillip brown wrote:
On Aug 21, 12:13*pm, theo wrote:

If we, as a country, want the warm glow of being near the top of the
medal tally every fourth year, we have to understand that it doesn't
come free.
How much we should invest in that, in education, in road safety, or in
pensioners, is a matter of ontinueing debate.

Figures suggest anywhere from $5m to $40m per gold medal

iehttp://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/08/beijing-olympic-medal-price.html

That's as good an estimate as any. I've seen figures starting from the
top end of that range. So either we want the medals and we pay, or we
don't get the medals. No good whining about the pittance (in respect
to the cost) that some elite sportsperson gets as a bonus. Most
sportspeople have a very short life at the top, and a very long time
to live with the buggered knees. I don't envy them.

Theo

On Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:41:12 -0700, theo wrote:


Figures suggest anywhere from $5m to $40m per gold medal

iehttp://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/08/beijing-olympic-medal-price.html

That's as good an estimate as any. I've seen figures starting from the
top end of that range. So either we want the medals and we pay, or we
don't get the medals.

I'd prefer nobel Prizes. apparently we have already scored 9 by
Australians.

"terryc" wrote in message
news

I'd prefer nobel Prizes. apparently we have already scored 9 by
Australians.


I suspect most Australians quite like Nobel Prize winners, but they're not
up there with sporting heroes. Come to think of it, I reckon most would
even prefer 11 new international celebrities (like Nicole Kidman) to 11 gold
medals.

On Aug 22, 10:01*am, "Claude" wrote:
"terryc" wrote in message

I'd prefer nobel Prizes. apparently we have already scored 9 by
Australians.

I suspect most Australians quite like Nobel Prize winners, but they're not
up there with sporting heroes. *Come to think of it, I reckon most would
even prefer 11 new international celebrities (like Nicole Kidman) to 11 gold
medals.

You're probably right, but the two Perth guys who discovered the
heliobacter bacteria and cured the uncurable, 'used to be called
stomach ulcers', are my heroes. One of them infected himself with
heliobacter to prove the cure. That's real courage, and they deserved
the Nobel prize.

People lived half their lives with stomach pain, now they take a
course of antibiotics and it's gone.

Theo