Funny Pic of the Day (1/21/09)

iTunes Store Blocked In China

Internet users in China have been complaining this week that they cannot access Apple’s iTunes Store. The start of the problems coincided with an announcement from an activist group which said that around 40 Olympic athletes had downloaded a pro-Tibet benefit album that was also carried on iTunes.

The IDG News Service reported Friday that the Amazon.com page for the “Songs for Tibet” album, which includes 20 songs from artists like Sting, Dave Matthews and Moby, could not be reached within China. Michael Wohl, executive director of the Art of Peace Foundation, which produced the album, cited comments on YouTube which said a video promoting the album might also be inaccessible in China. - New York Times

Pff, who buys music anymore?

Funny Pic of the Day (8/22)

The Guy W/ The Green Eyes Is Making Himself Look Like A Flamah

Kexin Is Possibly 14 Says IT Expert

A determined U.S. computer expert has delved into cached pages on the Internet to unearth Chinese official documents showing a gymnast who took gold in the uneven bars competition, edging the U.S.'s Nastia Liukin, may indeed be underage.

Controversy over whether He Kexin is under the minimum age of 16 has surrounded her participation in the Beijing Olympics. The latest challenge over the age of the tiny Olympian comes from the discovery through a cyberspace maze of Chinese official documents listing her date of birth. - Fox News

The documents give her date of birth as January 1, 1994 - which, if you know how to do simple math, is two years under the minimum.

Bolt breaks record

And now, a success story.

BEIJING -- There will always be another. This is the eternal lesson of track and field. On a sweltering August night 12 years ago, Michael Johnson lashed the 200-meter world record to his back and seemed to drag it deep into the future. He ran 19.32 seconds, so fast that young men accepted that they would not see the record broken again in their lifetimes.

Usain Bolt was 9 years old on that night, growing up tall and skinny -- "I was tall when I was little,'' says Bolt -- in Trelawny Parish on the north shore of Jamaica, an hour's drive from the vacation resorts of Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. He loved to play cricket with his friends, and if he was talented, he was also a little lazy.

But one afternoon two years later, he ran too fast at a school field day and found himself on the track team, because Jamaica will compel a sprinter to sprint. Somewhere a clock began ticking, counting down the life of Johnson's record, unseen and unknown, but inexorable.

At the age of 12, Bolt ran 52 seconds flat for 400 meters on a grass track in Manchester, Jamaica. He won the world junior 400-meter title at age 16, beating athletes who were four years older. He was impossibly precocious. "We knew what was coming,'' said Bert Cameron, a Jamaican national coach who was also the 400-meter world champion in 1983.

On Wednesday night in the Olympic Stadium called the Bird's Nest, Bolt ran 19.30 seconds to take down Johnson's world record.

Olympics update

"Because it is my name!"

BEIJING -- American women were the face of heartbreak at National Stadium on Tuesday night.

Twice in the span of 20 minutes, they were flying down the straightaway with a gold medal within reach. Two strong favorites were close enough to feel it. Years of unstinting effort were about to pay off.

Lolo Jones failed to clear her next-to-last hurdle in the 100-meter hurdle final, falling from first to seventh in the race.

Twice they crossed the finish line beaten, shocked and devastated.

Two athletic moments of a lifetime ended in bitter tears.

First, Sanya Richards in the 400-meter dash. She was well clear of the field with a mere 80 meters to run when she suddenly lost her momentum, shortening up and finishing third. She was shaking her head in obvious dismay at the finish and complained afterward of a tweaked hamstring.

Richards was the saddest bronze medalist in Beijing, describing herself as "more than snakebit."

"I don't even want to tell you what I'm thinking right now because it's not positive," she said. "I feel so betrayed right now by my body. It's so discouraging."

At least Richards got a bronze, there's an achievement. Jones can take pride in how far she got and hope for a better turnout four years from now.

Cash in on Beijing!

Most small businesses can’t even dream of sponsoring the Olympics. But that doesn’t mean the games can’t be part of their marketing efforts.

VerticalResponse, a direct marketing firm, offers some fun ideas on its blog for Olympics-themed promotions and ad campaigns a business might try. Here are some of its suggestions:

– Offer a 5% discount for every gold medal your country wins, capped at a certain number.

– Tie discounts to the win of your favorite athlete. If, say, Michael Phelps wins a gold, give customers $10 cash back on that day.

– Advertise Olympics specials: 25% off all athletic gear until Aug. 24 (the last day of the games).

– Selling special products or services, such as a special Olympic-themed mixed drink, especially for the Olympics.

Okay, how about this? If Michael Phelps wins another gold today, all our readers will get $10!*
*Offer may not be genuine.

Phelps breaks medal-winning record

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a sports fan, but I've been watching the Olympics like crazy. Mainly because Phelps is making history.

BEIJING - The US lead in the men's 4 x 200-meter freestyle relay today was almost comical. And that was when Michael Phelps finished his leadoff leg in 1 minute 43.31 seconds. Not only was Phelps more than two seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, but he also put the Americans well ahead of world-record pace.

Phelps earned his fifth gold medal and his fifth world record of the Beijing Games when the US won the race in 6:58.56, smashing the previous record by 4.68 seconds. The gold represented the 13th Olympic medal of Phelps's career, surpassing swimmer Jenny Thompson for the most won by an American athlete. Between Phelps and the team's record-setting effort, runner-up Russia was an afterthought, touching the wall more than five seconds back for the silver medal.

"It's everything I ever dreamed about," said Phelps, whose victory earlier in the day in the 200-meter butterfly earned him his 10th gold medal, the most ever by an Olympian.

Female American, Chinese gymnasts face off

BEIJING (AP) - Nastia Liukin is bringing the toughest uneven bars routine in the world, and Shawn Johnson will be strutting some of the strongest stuff on vault, floor and balance beam. When it comes to sauce and sass, no one comes close to Alicia Sacramone.

C'mon, China, think you can top that?

Actually, yes.

For every dazzling routine the Americans throw out there in Wednesday's gymnastics team final, the Chinese can come right back with one of their own. And then some, in some cases.

Three years in the making, the showdown between China and the United States is finally here and it's as good as advertised. The world's two powerhouses, going one after another in the same rotation, one last meet to show, once and for all, who really is the best of the best.

Swimming loses its excitement when Phelps leaves the pool, but gymnastics is always worth watching - especially when you're rooting for Team USA! USA! USA! Sorry. But of course, the best sport of them all - you guessed it - ladies' beach volleyball.

Phelps Phamily along for ride

Without entering a competition, Debbie Phelps has become one of the stars of the Beijing Olympic Games: Her animated cheering for her son Michael as he chases Olympic history has made her a favorite among TV viewers. But Debbie says she is far from a stage mom — she maintains a hands-off policy as her swimming son seeks to become the first athlete to ever claim eight medals at an individual Olympics.

“This is his office; that’s how I look at Michael’s pool,” Debbie told co-host Matt Lauer during an exclusive appearance on TODAY. “He’s going to work, and his work is performing at his highest level.”

While Michael’s contact with his parents and his big sisters Hilary and Whitney is limited to phone calls and text messages during the Olympics, watching 19-year-old Michael tear through the competition in Beijing is a combination of ecstasy and racked nerves for his cheering family.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, than a video's worth is through the roof.

Watch more free videos at ZipperFish.com

CG Opening Ceremony

If you watched the Opening Ceremony on Friday night, chances are you said something like, "no way that's possible" at least once. It turns out you were right.

London's Telegraph newspaper reports that some of the fireworks which appeared over Beijing during the television broadcast of the Olympic Opening Ceremony were actually computer generated. But -- hold on -- it's not necessarily as bad as you think.

The faked fireworks were actually set-off at the stadium, but because of potential dangers in filming the display live from a helicopter, viewers at home were shown a pre-recorded, computer-generated shot. It sounds dishonest, but I'm not sure it's such a terrible thing. - Yahoo! Sports

It doesn't really matter if you aren't there in person.

Darfur update

US President George W. Bush said yesterday he had used talks with Chinese leaders during the Olympic Games to press them to use their influence with Sudan to help end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

One problem: where's China gonna get her oil?

Bush Juggles Diplomacy/Olympic Viewing

The president's comments in support of human rights before he arrived Thursday in Beijing "really made China uncomfortable," said Yan Xuetong, an international relations expert at Beijing's Qinghua University. "But compared with his attending the Olympic Games, the profit is much larger than the loss," Yan said.
...
On Sunday, the president and first lady Laura Bush worshiped at a Christian church. "No state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion," Bush said afterward on the steps of the government-approved Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church.

Many Chinese worship at unofficial underground churches subject to frequent government harassment.

At a lunchtime meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Bush told him, "China will be a better place if there is more freedom of religion," said Dennis Wilder, the National Security Council's director for Asian Affairs. - USA Today

Having no freedom of religion is why Communism is bad.

Slap That Ass! Bush Says No

President George W. Bush, who played baseball, coached Little League, owned a big league team and watches the Texas Rangers at every opportunity, can't stay away from the U.S. teams at the Beijing Olympic games.

Today, as the busy crowd over at our Olympics blog notes, after an hour's brisk bit of mountain-biking himself, Bush paid another visit to the American athletes, watching the women warm up for softball, regretting the disappearance of that sport from the next Olympics ("It's good for the world to have girls playing softball and these women are going to show young girls how to win") and trying his hand, so to speak, at volleyball.

Bush knuckled off a couple of lobs, but defending gold medalists Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh gave the chief executive some pointers. Then after a good play, in the tradition of female volleyballers, May-Treanor turned, bent over slightly and offered her bikinied rear-end for the 43rd president to slap.

"Mr. President," she said, "want to?"

Want to has nothing to do with it in public life. -

Source: Los Angeles Times

It's funny because the original photo's caption stated that Bush had "playfully" slapped the ass of Treanor.

Olympics Commence

BEIJING (AP) - 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 Friday with an extravaganza of fireworks and pageantry dramatizing its ascendance as a global power.

Disasters, environmental problems and human-rights disputes preceded the games, and questions abound about how they will unfold. But for an evening, at least for the 91,000 people packed into the new National Stadium, it was an interlude of fervor and magic - capped by the spellbinding sight of a skywalking, torchbearing gymnast floating around the stadium's top rim before sending a torrent of fire upward to light the Olympic flame.

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.

Damn, I missed it. At least I can say I was a part of the 3 billion that didn't tune in.

Government clears migrants from Beijing

BEIJING — Li Tianchao is an itinerant worker who has spent his adult life toiling long hours, living in bleak worksite dormitories and chasing the next construction job from boom town to boom town. A no-nonsense, weatherworn man, he is not quick to grouse.

But as he waited for a train to take him back to his hometown north of the capital, Mr. Li, 50, could not help but feel wistful.

“The Olympics have finally come to China, and I won’t even be here,” he said, lounging on a woven plastic sack stuffed with his possessions. He glanced up at the “Participate in the Olympics, Enjoy the Fun” banner above his head and shrugged.

Like thousands of others who packed Beijing’s main train station on Thursday, Mr. Li was prompted to leave town by a lack of work and an unwritten government policy encouraging migrant workers to clear out until the dignitaries and journalists have gone home.

China may be a superpower, but, like our nation, it has plenty of problems. I'm a bit glad that the Olympics are there, because the world can now learn what China is really like.

Bush arrives in Beijing

BEIJING — President Bush arrived here on Thursday eager to shift his focus to Olympic sports, only hours after China pointedly rebuffed his criticism of the country’s record on human rights.

Bush...surprisingly...has the right idea here.

8/6/08 News

China Is Racist

Hong Kong's English newspaper The South China Morning Post reported Friday that Chinese authorities have issued a secret ban on blacks, Mongolians and other "social undesirables" from Beijing's bars during the Olympics.

As the content on South China Morning Post's site is for subscribers only, here is an excerpt of the article c/o the Beijing drinking blog Beijing Boyce:

Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city's bars during the Olympic Games, a move that would contradict the official slogan, "One World, One Dream".

Bar owners near the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.... - The Huffington Post

The most twisted Olympic games in years? You bet.

Internet Spying At Olympics

Washington DC, Jul 29, 2008 / 04:47 pm (CNA).- Although the Olympics are meant to be a time of celebration and athletic competition, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) produced evidence today that Chinese authorities are planning to spy on visitors’ internet usage.

Documents obtained by CNA from Sen. Brownback’s office, show that the Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) is requiring hotels to install a software program called the “Security Management System” and a hardware device, both of which will allow the PSB to monitor the use of the internet by their patrons.

Hotels and other companies who charge for internet usage were told to have the software component installed by April 28, 2008 and to have the hardware functional by July 31, 2008 or face fines from the PSB.

Those who refuse to comply with the orders will be fined $730 for individuals and $2,200 for a company. Serious violations, the notice mandating the installations warns, will result in a suspension of access to the internet or the cancellation of the company’s business license. - Catholic News Agency

Government censorship = big no no