Olympics Opening Ceremony

I did not watch it so cannot comment, but here are a few views, including some positive comments, with reservations, from the Greek media .  

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9434319/London-2012-What-the-world-thought-of-the-opening-ceremony.html

Olympics : started to watch for the opening on the TV, TV sent me to sleep so missed that most of it but what I did see at the beginning –
Buckingham Palace : Daniel Craig in guise of Bond 007 being received by the Queen, then them walking off down the corridor, getting in helicopter, then it waving over the olympic stadium – that I did not understand, as it could not land in the middle as it would not be able to take off again –
next minutes Her Majesty Parachutes out of the "Helicopter" in her dress with parachute, followed by Bond

Here is the story behind it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180214/London-Olympics-2012-Man-played-Queen-opening-ceremony.html

I thought it was fantastic and showed us as a diverse and multicultural society and it made me feel very proud to be British. The music was great and I think showed us as a forward thinking nation, not looking to the past constantly.

I’m sure it was better visually if you were there but the tv coverage showed it to be very messy and often embarrasingly bad.The forging of the rings and the chimneys rising were technically brilliant (o yes,the rape of the countryside-yes makes you very proud to be british).The NHS section (something else we are so proud of)was downright embarrasing and the coy texting teenagers summed up our modern culture and made me want to chuck..There were some brilliant ideas,all executed rather badly-like the hurried snippets of our wonderful music through the generations-something I would have liked to have heard more of.Is Mr.Bean really the best of british comedy,and the Queen acting rather badly?! And I thought it rather amusing to play only the first line of the Sex Pistols god Save The Queen, and Frankie’s Relax which was banned when it first came out.Perhaps it was all to show we are a messed up nation,not really listening to what people are saying.On that note I did wonder why all the annnouncements were in french first,then english.
I’m not sporty but I thought I’d watch this seeing as so much of our tax-payers money was spent on it,but I had to go to bed once all the athletes came out-I heard that went on for hours!!Sorry to miss Paul.but I heard that wasn’t too amazing either. :-[

Something else they got wrong then! ;D

Definitely important and brilliantly shown on the stage.Shame the spectacle all went downhill after that,maybe it could have all been a bit more historically linear instead of mixing it all up.Having the yellow submarines on at the same time as Kenneth hamming it up was a bit weird,and the ‘Queen’ parachuting was just tacky.However,these things are always better if you are actually there.
What is annoying me now though,is the extensive coverage on the tv,it is hard to escape it (bit like royal weddings!)Apparently there is no other news either from the rest of the world (maybe 5 minutes at the end of the BBC news mentioning the war in Syria and a few other minor events!!)

Well said Gem

in common parlance, a devil’s advocate is someone who, given a certain argument, takes a position he or she does not necessarily agree with, for the sake of argument. In taking such position, the individual taking on the devil’s advocate role seeks to engage others in an argumentative discussion process.

Did I miss something? Who is playing devil’s advocate?

Out of all the 203 countries in the Olympics, I don’t think it’s too bad to come third especially as all but 8 got through to the final and the rest didn’t even qualify. Well done GB!!!!! :D