International Olympic Committee Is Hopeless Bunch Of Divas So Nobody Wants To Host The Games

Apparentlu, the International Olympic Committe consists
of a bunch of divas.  

We've heard the runup to this summer's Olympic Games in Rio are a mess

What with the zika virus, toxic pollution in the water, high crime, construction delays, corruption and a Brazilian government in disarray, things aren't looking too hopeful.

In the future, it would be nice if the Games were hosted in a nice, stable country, like Norway.

But Norway, who had considered bidding for the 2022 Olympic Games, is out. Part of it is people in Norway sensibly wondered whether it was a good idea to build a whole bunch of sporting venues that would be used for a couple weeks and largely abandoned.'

The International Olympic Committee didn't help their case with Norway because members of that panel are the worst divas in the world.

Yes, that's right. The committee blew with hilarious demands that would make the most narcisstic rock band or politician blush. Donald Trump wouldn't even go this far.

Here, according to Slate, is how Norway would have to treat the International Olympic Committee members if the 2022 event had occured in Norway:

--- They demand to meet the king prior to the opening ceremony. Afterwards, there shall be a cocktail reception. Drinks shall be paid for by the Royal Palace or the local organizing committee.

--- Separate lanes should be created on all roads where IOC members will travel, which are not to be used by regular people or public transportation.

--- A welcome greeting from the local Olympic boss and the hotel manager should be presented in IOC members' rooms, along with fruit and cakes of the season. (Seasonal fruit in Oslo in February is a challenge...)

----  The hotel bar at the hotel should extend its hours 'extra late' and the minibars must stock Coke products.

---  The IOC president shall be welcomed ceremoniously on the runway when he arrives.

--- The IOC members should have separate entrances and exits to and from the airport.

--- During the opening and closing ceremonies a fully stocked bar shall be available. During competition days, wine and beer will do at the stadium lounge.

--- IOC members shall be greeted with a smile when arriving at their hotel

--- Meeting rooms shall be kept at exactly 20 degrees Celsius at all times.

--- The hot food offered in the lounges at venues should be replaced at regular intervals, as IOC members might 'risk' have to east several meals at the same lounge during the Olympics.

Gosh, these demands are especially heavy on the booze, aren't they?  The International Olympic Committee seems to be an incredible gang of lushes.

It also turns out that many members of the International Olympic Committee are members of hereditary royal families from various countries, so of course they want to be treated at all times like super special kings and queens and fragile (but boozing!) princesses.

Really, between the expense of setting up the Olympics and the obnoxiousness of the Olympic Committee, nobody wants to host the games.

As Yahoo Sports notes, the 2022 games will either be held in Beijing, China, which is at least 120 miles from the nearest ski mountain, and Kazakhstan, which is well, Kazakhstan.

Other cities, like Oslo, keep taking themselves out of the running for the Olympics, especially in countries where the citizenry gets a say in the matter.

Krakow, Poland is out for winter, 2022, too. Boston said no to the summer Olympics in 2024.

No wonder the International Olympic Committee seems so intent on drinking so much. Nobody likes or wants them anymore.

Whales Swim Under Northern Lights In Maybe The Most Gorgeous Video Ever

Whales swimming beneath the Northern Lights off
the coast of Norway this week.  

Much northern Europe and northern reaches of North America were treated to another stunning display of Northern Lights this week.

This yielded what might be the most gorgeous video I've ever seen.

Taken by Harald Albrigtsen of the Norwegian media company NRK, the video shows humpback whales cavorting just off the coast of Norway while the Northern Lights were in full throttle mode.

If you like nature, this is your video.

Watch:

Meteor Almost Smashes Into Norwegian Skydiver

In the summer of 2012, a Norwegian guy named Anders Helstrup decided to go skydiving.

A still from Anders Helstrup's 2012 skydiving video
in which meteor zipped past him during his descent.  

Like many skydivers, he had a camera attached to him to catch the drama of his descent to the ground. Those videos are always fun.

But what was that little black thing that whizzed by him, that thing that was about the size of a softball? That almost hit him?

A bird? More likely something that fell out of an airplane high above him that he didn't see?  He wasn't sure, but it was odd.

His camera caught that thing going by. It looked like a stone. He eventually showed it to geologist Hans Amunsden.

Turns out Helstrup was almost hit by a meteorite. And he was almost the unluckiest person on the planet, as had the meteorite hit Helstrup, it would have sliced him in half.

The chances are super tiny that a meteorite would occupy the same speck of the earth's atmosphere at the same time a skydiver with a camera was occupying that same speck of atmosphere, but there you go.

You can see for yourself the video of this at the bottom of the post.

First, we need to explain things a bit more.

It all seems way to farfetched to be true, but scientists who have studied Helstrup's video say there's no other explanation. It was a meteorite zipping past the camera lens.  This, apparently, is no belated April Fools Day joke.

But don't meteors burn and light up the sky as the enter the earth's atmosphere?

Yup. But after they get down to a certain elevation, the fire goes out and they go into what is called "dark flight."

According to the Norwegian news agency NRK:

"When a meteoroid enters the Earth's atmosphere, it slows down and ionizes molecules around it; it is this blazing track across the sky that is called a meteor.

When the light disappears, the meteorite enters the state called "dark flight;" it then no longer travels at an angle, but falls straight down."

'It has never happened before that a meteorite has been filmed during dark flight; this is the first time in world history,' said Amundsen." (the geologist)

Analysis of the video, which shows part of the rock as a sphere, part of it recently fractured, as a classic meteorite, Amundsen said.

Helstrup and the geologists kept this whole thing hush hush for the past couple of years because they were hunting for the meteor on the ground and didn't want the hunt screwed up.

But so far, they haven't found it, so now they've opened up the search to the public by releasing this information.

Here's the video. It's a report by NRK, and it's in Norwegian so you won't understand what's said, but you'll definitely get the gist, and see the meteor:

Could This Be My Perfect Summer Job?

In a job posting that at intial glance sounds just perfect for me, they're looking for someone who loves the outdoors and has a loud voice.

That's me!

A nice cool summer job is available in Norway
if you are good at spotting one of these.  

The summer job in question is for a Norwegian polar bear spotter.

The polar bear spotter is needed so that researchers on a remote island can do their work without constantly looking over their shoulders to see any polar bears that might think the researchers are lunch.

Of course, the fine print for the job posting has one necessary qualification that might put me at a disadvantage. First of all, the successful candidate needs to have good polar bear spotting skills.

I don't know what that means. If such skills refer to seeing a big white bear and going, "Oh, my gosh! That's a polar bear!" I can do that. But I don't know if there's more to it than that.

The best candidate for this job should also be proficient with firearms, just in case the polar bear manages to attack.

That could be problematic, because I fear I might be clumsy with guns.

On the bright side, the people offering the job say the polar bear spotter might not ever have to use a firearm "as long as they have a loud voice."

I hope the job application isn't in Norwegian.