China's smog problems are relentless!

From inhabitat: Already a large number of athletes are severely concerned about how competing in the Olympics will harm their health and chances at winning. The Australian track and field team, and the Canadian athletics team are skipping the opening ceremony due to concerns about pollution. [Link]

Hopefully the air in the Watercube is filtered. If smog screws up these Olympic Games then the IOC royally screwed up by choosing a country devoid of air clean enough to compete in. The blame should be placed on the IOC rather than China.

Tickets to the Beijing Olympics opening and closing ceremonies will contain an embedded chip with the owners personal data.

Each ticket to the opening and closing ceremonies will contain a RFID chip that has the owners, passport info, their photo, address, telephone numbers, and email address as a security measure to prevent disruptions during the ceremonies.

These $720 tickets are the most expensive Olympic ticket and the Canadian Press list some good arguments as to why this is not only a lame idea but rather sets up the ticket owner for potential identity theft. Here is what Security Australian security expert, Roger Clarke, had to say :

"... The way in which you recognize an evildoer, somebody who wants to throw a bomb, somebody who wants to unfurl a Tibet flag is not on the basis of their identity," Clarke added. "It's the act that they perform and it's the materials they carry with them. ..." [Link]

Transfers of these tickets to a family member or friend would be next to impossible and potentially create long waits as officials at the gate try to figure out why a 30-year-old white male has the passport data of a 65-year-old Japanese woman. (Simply answer, she was a ticket scalper.)

The photo above came from Xinhuanet as part of a ticket unveiling ceremony. The artwork is very attractive is and the RFID technology therein advanced to a point of Orwellian dimensions: [Link]

A new 'Human Growth Hormone' test has been engineered for the Beijing Olympics

I don't understand how hard it could be to find HGH in someone's urine. If you look at the picture on the right, all they have to do is look for a giant mass of ping pong balls stuck to humongous wad of gum! ;-)

From ESPN: "... We know people have been taking human growth hormone with impunity and have been for 20 years," WADA director general David Howman said.

He said the test would be able to catch cheats within a window of "more than 48 hours."

Officials refused to give details, saying drug cheats needed to be left in the dark. But Fahey did say he was very confident about the tests.

"We all know these things end up in court more often than not," he said. "It's got to withstand the legal challenge as well. No reason to believe that all of that won't be in place and that there will be a capacity to test at the Beijing Olympics."

Fahey said traces of the drug could also be frozen and stored in samples for up to eight years, meaning users could still be caught and lose their medals years later.

"Scientists will say very clearly that the storage of plasma is capable of being tested effectively eight years," Fahey said. "It is scientifically sound." [Link]

After I wrote this post, a fellow blogger sent me news that a leading marathon runner has declined to compete in Beijing due to air quality issues. Here is a snippet from The Guardian article he sent: "LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) - World record holder Haile Gebrselassie will aim for an Olympic marathon title at the 2012 London Games after deciding the pollution in Beijing this year represents an unacceptable health threat.

The twice Olympic 10,000 metres champion, who will be 39 in 2012, suffers from exercise-induced asthma and will not compete in Beijing unless he qualifies for the Ethiopian 10,000 team. ..." [Link]

The photo of the HGH molecule came from an anti-aging website that sells HGH. That is how easy it is to get if they are selling the real deal: [Link]

Nearly 3,500 Chinese babies have been named 'Olympics'

Hope I am not doing to many off topic stories but I thought this one was cute. From the article: "... Most of the 3,491 people with the name "Aoyun," meaning Olympics, were born around the year 2000, as Beijing was bidding to host the 2008 Summer Games, the Beijing Daily reported, citing information from China's national identity card database. ...

The vast majority of people named Aoyun are male, the newspaper said. Only six live in Beijing. The report didn't say where the others live. ..." [Link]

From vagabondrhythm photostream at Flickr.com. Direct link [Link]

NBC Sports has a trailer for the 2008 Beijing Olympics featuring Michael Phelps

The trailer is titled: XXIX Olympic Games: Swim sensation Michael Phelps leads Team USA into China. [Link]

Four minute interview and slide show with the Beijing 'Water Cube' architect.

Jane McLean spoke with John Bilmon of PTW, the architects of this over-designed, form before function, aquatics center. Here is a link to the PTW site so you can see all of the 'horsey' stuff they build: [Link]

From CNN: The National Aquatics Centre, known as the "Water Cube," for the Beijing Olympics looks set to be ready in October 2007. ... he building's design and operation aims to live up to China's promise to be the most environmentally friendly Games ever. ..." [Link]

Greenest games ever? I don't think so. The IOC is all ready having issues with air quality and has suggested events be rescheduled if air quality is rated unhealthful: [Link]

Keep in mind this is a country that uses coal as a primary energy source, allows metal tailings to flow into rivers unregulated and prefers 'Sour Crude' oil instead of 'Brent Crude' or 'Sweet Crude' to drive their cars and buses. (Sour Crude contains more sulphur and costs more to refine but it is cheaper than Sweet Crude but pollutes more.)

The Chinese are building a $39 billion dollar city for the Beijing Olympics

The Chinese government is making a massive public investment not only in these upcoming games but also in their infrastructure of Beijing post Olympics. Once the venues are completed, plans have been made in regards to redistribution of these facilities for the public good.

The Water Cube, where all the aquatics events will take place, will become a public pool facility after the Olympics. The 2,000 apartments that comprise the Olympic village will be sold for public housing. They have built a reusable port for the regatta, an airport for transportation needs, and numerous stadiums to make this Olympics both a public relations and a social needs success.

I can't think of a better way to create new economies where none existed by using global tourist money to help pay for it. This is pure 'Adam Smith' capitalism which is ironic for a place who has Chairman Mao as a figurehead.

From the article:

"... In official estimates, in the 2002-2007 period investment in the Olympic preparations should reach about $18 billion. But the closer the Games, the more doubts there are about China's ability to keep within the announced budget. Quoting Beijing authorities, some foreign sources report that China will have to spend $8 billion on the construction of new underground lines and other transportation facilities, and an additional $5 billion on the building of satellite cities. The figure of $39 billion looks more authentic, but it absorbs only indirect spending on Olympic preparations. It does not cover the construction of sports facilities and development of a security system. Nor does it include the $8.5 billion that the port of Qingdao (Tsingtao - Western postal name) was going to spend on the preparations for the Olympic regatta in the Yellow Sea. ..." [Link]

Kates Ziegler breaks water

Kate Ziegler will be both the new Laure Manadou and Grant Hackett in Beijing. I think she is unbeatable in the 1500, and the 400. I don't know what her third event is; the 800?

I found out today after asking a coach who knew Janet Evans as to how much yardage she put in. He replied 10k a workout. Then he clarified that she did doubles. That's right, 20k a day. Laure was asked to do 15 to 17 a day and she felt that was to much. (I do too.)

Phelps inspired by Beijing's 'Water Cube"

I really do not like the architectural design for this aquatics facility. It's called the Water Cube and this will be the venue for all things aquatic for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Phelps and Katie Hoff gush:

• We went and saw it yesterday and it's definitely pretty cool," Phelps said during a visit to Shanghai on Thursday. "I think it's going to paint a picture for Katie and me in our my minds too, to really help us prepare for next year and get us more and more excited," he said. Covered in futuristic bubble wrap, the box-like National Aquatics Center, or "Water Cube," is one of the most striking of the venues going up for the Summer Games, at which Phelps is expected to dominate the swimming competition. [Link]
  

What mystifies me is that Katie Hoff is there, Michael Phelps, and Grant Hackett too with all of the above talent "pimping" the Water Cube, and Chinese swimmers. Why are they doing this? Why is there such a marketing effort as part of this aquatics facility build?

Here is a article that I feel might explain why. This paper is written in India; a country some believe has a national rivalry with China, so the article could be biased. [Link]

Here is an article that touts how marvelous the transparent plastic used to build this aquatics facility is. [Link]

Is it me or do sirens go off in your head about this pool when you read words like: semi-transparent plastic, chlorine, and direct sunlight. It sounds to me like it could become a mold and petrochemical nightmare.

Here is a link to the pool they should have emulated: The Munich Olympic Pool [Link]

French presidential candidate, Francois Bayrou, calls for Beijing boycott

That would so suck for Laure Manaudou and the whole French team. You would think that the world would have learned from former President, Jimmy Carter's, blunder when he had the U.S. boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet Union's involvement in Afghanistan. Consequently athletes from all over the United States were summarily denied a legacy and/or an accomplishment due to that foreign policy fiasco.

Enter French politician, Francois Bayrou, who feels France should boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics, "if China does not alter its stance on the Darfur crisis in Sudan. ..." Here is a link to the story over at WCSN: [link]

I did a little research and found out that China has $10 billion reasons to look the other way in the Sudan and those reasons are all invested inside of Sudan's oil fields. [Link]

Yet another reason to get the hell out of an oil based economy. I don't care if hydrogen costs more to produce and is inefficient to move around. This bloody stuff called oil pollutes the ocean, the air, our lungs and our politics. Per Popular Mechanics it would take 800 million dollars to go to a hydrogen method of energy production yet we have spent $400 billion in Iraq.

Wiki link regarding Popular Mechanics figures: [Link]

So, if you are French, don't vote for this guy.