China gets wooden spoon for right-angled running track

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10995174/China-gets-wooden-spoon-for-right-angled-running-track.html ^

[4rcane]

China gets wooden spoon for right-angled running track Sports officials in northeast China build a rectangular running track – with right angle corners – in order to ensure their stadium is ready for the visit of Communist Party leaders Sports officials in northeast China have claimed the gold medal for incompetence after authorising the construction of a running track with right-angled corners. The track was completed recently as part of a major refurbishment of a 100,000 sq ft stadium in Heilongjiang province’s Tonghe County. The stadium itself appears to have been impressively built and features an immaculately laid artificial grass football pitch at its centre.

[4rcane]

[Dark Knight]

“In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” he confessed. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?”

I’ve seen oval tracks with straight sprint lanes for the shorter runs. The way the pictures are shot makes me believe the track is still an oval track, built to be oval but painted weirdly. If my life/livelihood depended on this, I doubt I would question it either.

DK

[Ezekiel]

Imagine what they could do to a lap pool.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

The only thing Communists get right is murdering people. Everything else is pretty much touch-and-go.

[Olog-hai]

If murder can be called “right”.

[blueplum]

do the runners get shot if they cross over their line? j/k

[MaxMax]

I think they are forced to eat 2lbs of rice with tweezers after fasting for a week.

[John S Mosby]

Communism in a nutshell, Statism writ large. Some kind of bureaucratic fear of the “masters” at the top. Sort of like obamaumaocare and the VA...... “maybe they won’t notice”.

LOL.

[John S Mosby]

“Viva, La Revolucion” Welcome to San Marco. Beginning next week the State requires that underwear be washed once a week.
Underwear will be worn on the outside....so we can check.

sort of quote from “Bananas” movie.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

If murder can be called “right”.

I'm not suggesting it's "right," just that they manage to do it with such competence.

[EEGator]

[Flick Lives]

When senior Communist Party leaders recently announced plans for a last-minute visit to the stadium, a quick makeover suddenly became necessary. Painting right angles was faster than painting curves, one official admitted. “In order to get it ready for the leaders, we painted it like that,” he confessed. “We think it is ugly too but if the leaders don’t ask us to change it, what are we supposed to do?”

This is a beautiful small-scale example of why central planning doesn't work. It inevitably becomes focused on appeasing the higher-ups and not on doing the job right. One can look at the recent disasters with wait times at the VA hospitals as a similar disasters. Making vets wait until they died and then removing them statistically from the reports became the "solution" to the problem with long wait times.