What Caught My Eye Today
Olympics (Part I) - Newsflash...the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing China have begun...just so you know. China didn't just walk onto the world stage. It soared over it. At last playing its long-sought role as Olympic host, China opened the Summer Games in spectacular fashion with an extravaganza of fireworks and pageantry dramatizing its ascendance as a global power. Scores of world leaders were on hand, and the potential TV audience was 4 billion worldwide for what was certainly the costliest and probably the largest opening ceremony in Olympic history. The centerpiece was the parade of athletes, climaxing with the entry of the 639-strong Chinese team. The run-up to the games had powerful story lines — China investing $40 billion to build Olympic infrastructure, reeling from the Sichuan earthquake, struggling right through Friday to diminish the stubborn smog that enveloped the stadium, known as the Bird's Nest. China's detentions of political activists, its crackdown on uprisings in Tibet and its economic ties to Sudan — home of the war-torn Darfur region — fueled persistent criticisms from human rights groups and calls for an Olympic boycott. Second-guessed for awarding the games to Beijing seven years ago, the International Olympic Committee stood firmly by its decision. It was time, the committee said, to bring the games to the homeland of 1.3 billion people, a fifth of humanity. Kind of hard to argue with logic like that regardless of your feelings toward China. But enough with the pre-game show (probably the only one that makes the Superbowl pre-game ritual seems short by comparison), let's get on with the competition.
Olympics (Part II) - On the off chance that you cannot free yourself up to watch the 3600 hours of coverage or if you just want to cut to the chase and see which country is going to end up with the most medals, then this next item is right up your alley, courtesy of those fun loving jokesters at PriceWaterHouseCoopers. The following factors have been found to be statistically significant in explaining the number of medals won by each country at previous Olympic Games since 1988: population, average income levels (measured by GDP per capita at PPP exchange rates), whether the country was previously part of the former Soviet/communist bloc, whether the country is the host nation, and medal shares in the previous Olympic Games. In general, the number of medals won increases with the population and economic wealth of the country. So did you catch all that? Yeah, me neither. Here are the top ten according to PWHC:
And there you have it. You can skip the Olympics now. No need to thank me.
Georgia - I'm talking about the country in Asia, not the state in the South. Russia dispatched an armored column into the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia after Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, launched a surprise offensive to crush separatists. Witnesses said hundreds of civilians were killed. Fighting reportedly raged well into the night with Georgia's interior ministry saying that warplanes attacked three Georgian military bases and key facilities for shipping oil to the West. The fighting, threatened to ignite a wider war between Georgia and Russia, and escalate tensions between Moscow and Washington. Aw shucks. This little skirmish won't affect bosom buddies like Russia and the U.S. We're mates, you know. Georgia said it was forced to launch the assault because of rebel attacks; the separatists alleged Georgia violated a cease-fire. The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing. The timing suggested Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia — a key to his hold on power. The rebels seek to unite with North Ossetia, which is part of Russia. I'm guessing that the traditional Olympic Games cease fire didn't figure much into this dude's plans to create a diplomatic firestorm.
2008 Presidential Race - I got a two-fer for you today. First up, Hillary Clinton. What up, girlfriend? Hillary Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams — and she wants her supporters to vote that way, too. That's nice. Though she has endorsed her former rival, the speech was Clinton's first appearance at a rally for Obama since the two appeared together in Unity, N.H., in June. Better late than never, I suppose.
And then we have John Edwards... Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign. Uh-oh. Someone got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He denied fathering a daughter, born to the woman with whom he had the affair, and offered to be tested to prove it. A former Edwards campaign staff member professes to be the father. Dude, these guys were having some serious nookie on the old campaign trail, weren't they? Well, so much for a high-level Cabinet position. John-john can kiss that Attorney General posting goodbye.
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