Russian verbs work on an aspect system. There are only three tenses (past, present and future) but each of them has two aspects (perfective and imperfective). The perfective aspect refers to a single completed action, the imperfective to continuous, completed action.
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Hmmmm⌠what is considered âon topicâ?
It would seem to me that the veracity of the postâs headline is fair game when commenting on the actual post.
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He did not say there was âFootage of the shower left pointing at the wallâ. The actual quote is this.
âWe have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,â
Your entire point is based on you not knowing the actual quote.
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I have no idea why this post has so many âlikesâ the original quote makes it clear that there is surveillance photos of the shower BEING TURNED ON. That is not explainable by any mechanism other than surveillance cameras pointed at the shower without the knowledge of the occupants.
âWe have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,â
Do you work for the Russian government? Otherwise, I canât explain your post.
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Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, seemed to reflect the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochiâs big debut out of bias against Russia. âWe have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,â he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. âWeâre doing a tour of the media center,â the aide said.
While it doesnât say that directly, it does imply that that could be done, and has been done while no one was in the shower. When did the video taping start exactly? Before the shower was turned on, or only when the shower was turned on?
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Iâm sorry, but did he actually say anything that constitutes a threat of releasing those videos? Iâm not seeing anything in his words that suggest the Russian authorities were planning to show that footage to anyone. I donât want to sound supportive of the Russian government, but unless Iâm missing something, youâre twisting his words with a very misleading heading to this article.
I would like to point out that a lot of people read Boing Boing and that you have a lot of respect from the Internet community. Donât squander that with this kind of Fox News tactic. There are plenty of legitimate things to say about the awful Russian government, its handling of the Sochi Olympics and this specific incident. There is no need to turn this into a tabloid piece.
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Well, to be fair, it is possible for the Russians to release the video. It is therefore possible they were thinking about doing it. So it is quite fair to quote them saying something they might possibly have said. Do you not believe in the Power of Imagination?
Step 1: Create performance in Sochi hotel bathroom, including placards promoting your dot-com
Step 2: Write press release about the poor conditions at the hotel and wait for Olympic officials to air the footage
Step 3: Profit!
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Whatâs so threatening about a video of a running shower pointed toward a wall that they didnât just show it during the press conference to âproveâ how awful the western tourists have been in their precious new hotels?
Whereâs the threat?
Itâs only a threat if they have video of the guests in the rooms.
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I believe in the power of imagination. I also believe in not representing my imagination as fact. The headline on this article makes it look like the official actually said, âStop complaining or we release the tapes.â If Cory imagined that, he should say so.
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From the original WSJ article:
Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, seemed to reflect the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "We're doing a tour of the media center," the aide said.
Why did the aide have to pull the reporter away, and quickly switch the subject to another topic? Seems the aide knew Kozak had given away too much intel.
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The bigger question in my mind is: how the hell is wasting some âwaterâ (Iâm using the term loosely here as potability has been in question for a while now.) equivalent to evidence of sabotaging the Olympic games? This guy is severely brain damaged if he thinks thatâs a convincing argument. Maybe he should switch from vodka to this âwaterâ. Unless itâs actually the Russians themselves whoâve sabotaged the games and are making asses of themselves.
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On-topic: The Sochi hotel surveillance situation, including whether âWe have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, etcâ justifies the widespread interpretation that there is hotel surveillance, surveillance footage, and the implicit possibility of its release, etc.
Start a new thread: general discussion of Boing Boingâs essential nature, blogging vs news, humorous/hyperbolic headlines vs. pedants/aspies, etc.
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If I were staying in one of those hotels, I might actually turn the shower on and leave it running, in the hope that eventually the beer-colored brown stuff reportedly coming out of the pipes would be washed out of the system and Iâd actually have water that looked like water and didnât have to have warning labels about not getting it on your face or drinking it. And if it didnât clear quickly and the shower noise became part of ambient background noise, I might forget it was still running and leave the room without turning it off.
So I can believe hotel staff might have found one or two showers or faucets left running. Itâs a far cry from that to accusations of âsabotageâ, though.
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I agree. I was joking.
I was thinking the same thing. I run the kitchen faucet for a while before filling water bottles for the kids if itâs the first running water of the day.
Why Russia, thatâs pretty gay.
Say itâs surveillance footage that actually shows people turning on the shower, directing the nozzle at the wall, and then leaving.
Thatâs awful, obviously. Both sides look bad, but the Russians look MORE bad.
Now, say itâs surveillance footage somebody took showing that the shower is on and directed at the wall. Letâs say itâs multiple cases, because otherwise it just means nothing at all other than that one guy (or lady) is an idiot.
This could prove either a) there are multiple journalists turning on water in the showers, directing the nozzle at a wall, in their own hotel rooms, then leaving for a whole day so they could have something to complain about.
Or, b) that maintenance staff has been instructed to go into peopleâs rooms, turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and take video of this in an effort to make it look like this is a conspiracy against Russia.
Either might be true. NEITHER might be true.
But of the two options, given everything else thatâs going wrong there, Iâm putting more money on Option B.
The Russians are filming people in the bathroom. This is a fact. Putin said so. Stop pretending he did not.
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It all depends on the nozzle direction. Which way was the nozzle pointed? Have we got more reports on which way the nozzle pointed?
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