Comments on: Olympic gold medals contain only 1% gold; would cost $25,000 if pure

By: fuzzyfuzzyfungus

fuzzyfuzzyfungus — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 19:27:00 +0000

Aluminum would be a strong contender.

Aluminum compounds of various flavors are cheap as chips(being ~8% of the earth’s crust will do that); but the refining technique is tricky enough that it was rarer than unobtanium until quite recently…

By: Ryan Lenethen

Ryan Lenethen — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:13:00 +0000

Though on the other side of the coin (pardon pun), the less the medal is worth the less likely an athlete will pawn it for cash. They are a bit less meaningful if their were tons of them floating around in pawn shops. The less it is worth the more likely the athlete will keep it forever as the potential desire will be less.

By: toyg

toyg — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 09:18:00 +0000

You guys gotta jump on a train to the north, where you can still get a decent fish&chips for under £ 3. (ok, it’s not $3, but it’s closer than the $15 you’ll pay in London…)

By: Rob Beschizza

Rob Beschizza — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 02:33:00 +0000

Bastards!

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:10:00 +0000

Do you honestly like the Del Taco fries? Everybody I know seems to like them but I just don’t get it. They’re fried instead of baked, but they still taste like the frozen fries my mom used to make. I mean they’re not bad, just kind of whatever.

I can’t remember the last time I had McDonald’s fries (probably 3 or 4 years ago) but I can’t say I’m a big fan of those either. In-n-Out takes the cake for traditional fast food fries since they’re fresh and actually taste like potato.

I can imagine as I type my favorite fries and could probably describe them, but I can’t remember where they’re from. I think it must be a non-chain Orange County fast food place but I can’t figure it out; frustrating.

By: penguinchris

penguinchris — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 01:04:00 +0000

Even if the logo wasn’t obviously “blowjob lisa”, I guarantee that nobody would display their medal with that side facing out. I like random lines and geometric compositions but this is monstrously ugly and completely inappropriate for an olympic medal. The front is ugly too, but passable.

By: awjt

awjt — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:20:00 +0000

Easter bunny, too. It’s kinkier than you think!

By: timquinn

timquinn — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:01:00 +0000

yeah I shouted, get over it.

By: timquinn

timquinn — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:00:00 +0000

“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”

Yeah, except it’s AN OLYMPIC BRONZE MEDAL. Let’s not let the over commercialization take away from the real accomplishments of these folks.

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:19:00 +0000

That’s what I love about the Olympics™; everybody wins except the athletes.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 22:07:00 +0000

American Gladiators is better. They try to knock each other off giant mushrooms with oversized Q-tips.

By: Bashtarle

Bashtarle — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:54:00 +0000

………. Yeah so, you get all the countries fighting over you. You get them to spend billions, trampling rights where need be…… rake in untold amounts of money in shameless advertising…… and you can’t spend 50million for some gold medals.

Way to stay classy Olympics.

There is probably a reason I haven’t watched them in decades and actively avoid buying products that sponsor them during the time they run (which is like everything).

They certainly don’t convey the sense of coming together or good will they did, at least not to me, not since I was a kid anyhow. They feel more like Valentines day the primary function of which seems to be unloading mass amounts of heart shaped chocolates and tepid greeting cards.

…… and in my book not that it matters, anything where you are judged on style
IS NOT A SPORT!

By: Carlos Sismeiro

Carlos Sismeiro — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:41:00 +0000

You would put money on the boxing champ over al the guys from shooting events?

By: Carlos Sismeiro

Carlos Sismeiro — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:29:00 +0000

Is it just me or does it pop out even more in the medal design?

By: Alex Kim

Alex Kim — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:01:00 +0000

Also, the lowercase type in “Olympiad London” creates a very displeasing/distracting texture: my eyes keep getting drawn to the “y” and the “i”, while the ascenders of “l”, “d” and “L” seem to be reaching WAY too close to the edge. Awkward as hell. In general, type on a curve and lowercase do not mix very well. Looks amateurish.

By: Damien Bailey

Damien Bailey — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:50:00 +0000

At £3000 each btw, not a huge sum, I think most athletes would keep onto them and not sell them.

By: Damien Bailey

Damien Bailey — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:49:00 +0000

This was on an episode of QI a while back. I think they estimated that if the medals were made out of 18ct gold the bill for the medals would be in the region of $1.5m which they thought is a small price compared to the rest of the competition and would be nice to award winners with these medals.

By: Dr. Jones

Dr. Jones — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 20:48:00 +0000

Amount of gold in a Nobel Prize >>>>Amount of gold in an Olympic Medal. Nerds win again.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:56:00 +0000

And then the biathletes show up from the Winter Games, and it’s all over.

By: Donald Petersen

Donald Petersen — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:55:00 +0000

I’d be much unhappier with that if any other company had the exclusive fries concession. Their french fries are just about the only thing that McDonald’s has always done better than anyone else in the whole wide world.

Although those Ore-Ida crinkle fries you get at Del Taco are pretty damned good, too.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:37:00 +0000

Are you a fan of Modern Pentathlon?

By: Jorpho

Jorpho — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:11:00 +0000

Might as well just go for shiny plastic and be done with it.

Is shiny gold plastic not a wonder of the modern age? Think of how the kings and queens of yore would have been dazzled by this lustrous and lightweight material!

By: Jorpho

Jorpho — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Well, they did put gigantic holes in them in Torino 2006. Remember? They looked like CDs.

By: DSarge001

DSarge001 — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:59:00 +0000

boxing? there are shooting events too you know, seems like they would have the lock. Not very sporting though & you would have to use your ammo wisely. Do I waste my bullet on the fencers or just buttstroke them & save it for the judo boys. I like the sound of this! I’m finally getting olympic fever.

By: CH

CH — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:53:00 +0000

What? Your parents are Santa Claus and the tooth fairy??? Lucky you!!! No… wait! You mean to tell me that Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are living together? You are pulling my leg… right? That’s not cool to joke like that!

By: Purplecat

Purplecat — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:26:00 +0000

You know, because you mentioned the price of gold in a blog, I’m expecting the usual suspects to turn up any moment now, yelling: “Fraud! Debasement! Audit the IOC! Fractional medal awarding is a Soviet Plot to cause hyperinflation!”

By: Jesse James Jensen

Jesse James Jensen — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:20:00 +0000

They should call the third place medal “Brass”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass

By: relawson

relawson — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 18:00:00 +0000

I was very afraid to search for “blowjob lisa logo” at work. Turned up the safe search filter before I did, though.

And now I can’t un-see that in the logo, bravo! :)

By: foobar

foobar — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:54:00 +0000

But then only from McDonalds, because they need that sponsorship money to pay for… the medals?

By: awjt

awjt — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 17:50:00 +0000

and the tits are all askew