August 27th, 2008
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With a million cameras hovering around every Olympic event, there are bound to be a billion pictures floating around on the Web. Boston.com’s The Big Picture photoblog is a big hit with photo enthusiasts and their Olympics wrap-up photo spread does not fail to disappoint.
For every moment of triumph, there are several other moments of loss that aren’t given their due. The Guardian captures the weird moments from the Olympics complete with snarky comments [via]. Don’t miss the Abhinav Bindra photo although he did end up with the gold. Also, check out this awesome interactive 360-degree panoramic photo of the Water Cube’s interior from atop the 10m diving platform. Peer down at the water too. Arvindblogs points me to this equally amazing panoramic view of the iconic Birds Nest (National) Stadium taken just before the 100m race.
If you found yourself scratching your head about some obscure reference to Olympics history by the commentators, Jason Kottke does a fine job of collating some of the noteworthy moments to remember from previous Olympics including Nadia’s perfect ten. I’m sure there are umpteen photo essays out there. Feel free to share your favorites.
Images and Photography, Sports | 
1 Comment »
August 25th, 2008
The 2008 Beijing Olympics finally concluded with yet another show of pomp and grandeur. So how did these Olympics fare compared to the others? As the BBC Olympics blog put it best, “there are really 204 different Olympic Games every four years - one from the perspective of every country taking part.” So for China, [...]
Sports | 6 Comments »
August 22nd, 2008
Olympic athletes train for a long time before it comes down to mere seconds in their respective races. Usain Bolt has been a phenomenon at the Post-Phelps 2008 Beijing Olympics and thanks to his cool Jamaican attitude, is also a crowd favorite. You may remember couple of Chinese fans sneaking into the group hug with [...]
Opinion, Society Culture, Sports | 2 Comments »
August 22nd, 2008
“U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have agreed to the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country by the end of 2011, and Iraqi officials said they are “very close” to resolving the remaining issues blocking a final accord that governs the future American military presence here” [source].
This is big news and a major policy [...]
Current Affairs, United States | No Comments »
August 21st, 2008
The latest versions of WordPress have a nifty and useful feature. Not only do you get notifications in your Dashboard when there is a new upgrade released for the Core but also tiny blurb notifications for plugin updates. You get a tiny notification blurb atop the Plugins option on the menubar for number of plugins [...]
Weblogs, World Wide Web | 6 Comments »
August 20th, 2008
Michael Phelps at conception
Before Usain Bolt smashed those world records in 100m and 200m with astonishing ease, Michael Phelps and his record eight Olympic golds were the talk of the town. Of course, there were a couple of close shaves but Phelps literally demolished his opposition and now promises to return albeit with a less [...]
Fun Weird, Sports | 7 Comments »
August 19th, 2008
Although we have had an overindulgence of sappy Olympics background stories, this one is genuine. Henry Cejudo, 21 son of an undocumented migrant or like some like to call them, illegal aliens has just won the gold for the U.S. in the 55-kilogram wrestling event. His immediate reaction - “The United States is the land [...]
Society Culture, Sports | 10 Comments »
August 16th, 2008
Winning Olympic medals has been all the rage in recent times as more and more nations have managed to win medals. Of course, thanks to global realignment and de-colonization, it helps to have more nations with almost 205 participating in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The top nations in the medal count has remained largely constant [...]
Weblogs | 7 Comments »
After the amazing interactive medals count map for the Olympics, The New York Times collects and links to national anthems of 27 different nations that have won gold in these Olympic Games [via]. It's so damn pleasing to see Jana Gana Mana in the list. (0)
BBC World Service is offering a free ringtone for your cell phone that goes "condom, condom" and is aimed at an effort to make the word 'condom' more socially acceptable [via]. Whether you use it or not, it is pretty hilarious! (0)
August 15th, 2008
Tyler Cowen lists three indicators for cultural success:
1. If a kid does badly in school, does the parent genuinely get mad at the kid and withhold affection?
2. Can people wait in an orderly line?
3. Can people stay in their designated lane when driving a car?
So how does India fare? Your guess is as good as [...]
India, Society Culture | 4 Comments »
August 15th, 2008
I’m still hoping to see a swimming final in the Beijing 2008 Olympics where a world record is not broken. World record are not broken by a millisecond or so which is usually the case but in some cases by as much as four seconds. In one race, the top five swimmers (4×100 relay) broke [...]
Sports, Technology | No Comments »
August 14th, 2008
The phenomenon of companies threatening bloggers in India is back. This time Google India has been sued by Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects to reveal details of a blogger who wrote against the company’s mines in Mozambique [via]. After failing to obtain the necessary cooperation from Mumbai Police’s Cyber Cell, Gremach moved the High Court [...]
India, Law, Weblogs | 2 Comments »
Former TechCrunch writer, Duncan Riley broke the story on a possible Bigfoot capture. He has shared a press release that claims DNA evidence and photos. But I'll remain skeptical until I hear the news confirmed from credible scientific sources. (0)
August 13th, 2008
Yesterday, Chinese women gymnasts joined their male counterparts in winning the team gymnastics gold. The minimum age for gymnasts in the Olympics is 16 but watching the Chinese girls (can’t really think of them as women), you would be hard pressed to believe that they meet the eligibility criteria. Following their amazing display at the [...]
Sports | 12 Comments »
August 13th, 2008
Alicia Sacramone single-handedly doomed any chances for U.S. to win the women’s team gymnastics gold by making egregious errors in her routine. She fell off the balance beam and landed plonk on her bottom during the floor exercises. She looked visibly disconsolate and seemed to blame herself for her team’s loss. Unjustifiably so because the [...]
Sports, United States | 3 Comments »
August 12th, 2008
Four years ago during the Athens 2004 Olympics, I wrote about a simple strategy to win more medals at the Olympics. It involved focusing on swimming and gymnastics given the number of events hence more medals in each event. If you have been watching Phelps attempt to break the record on the most medals won [...]
Governance, Sports | 4 Comments »
Remember that spectacular fireworks display depicting more than two dozen footprints through Beijiing leading to the Birds Nest Stadium during the Olympics opening ceremony? It turns out that it was digitally created. Sigh! I knew it was too good to be true.
And the nine-year-old kid who sang "I Sing for my Motherland" when the Chinese flag entered the stadium didn't actually sing it. So why was she up there? Well, she was just cuter, said the Director. (4)
August 11th, 2008
A gold medal at last! And in an individual event no less. Congrats, Abhinav Bindra for winning the top honors in the 10m air rifle shooting. India’s last gold was in the (largely-boycotted) Moscow 1980 Olympics in hockey. Bindra’s success should prove that in spite of the lack of supporting infrastructure, Indian sportspersons can compete [...]
India, Sports | 3 Comments »
No surprise that search volume for porn has steadily increased in India but why does Meghalaya lead the pack [via]. I didn't even know they had reliable net access. (4)
