Lego "Watercube" and other Olympic venues

Enormous Olympic city built out of Lego somewhere in Hong Kong. Here is the Flickr.com link
for the website HKLUG: [Link]

Accidental discovery!

It all started out so simple, I got up early, jumped in my pool, swam four laps and I got this idea for a blog post: There is this empty pool in London which has really been bugging me. (Strange things bug me.) This English pool is very art deco and it is just sitting there rotting away. So I go this idea that I would create a before/after shot. I would show the pool as it is now, and then take it into Photoshop and "fill it up" with water and add a swimmer as my "after" shot.

So, lo and behold, while searching for a kid with goggles, I discovered alberich mathews on Flickr and decided to put my original post on hold till this evening or so.

Here is a link to a bunch of underwater photography by Alberich Mathews and be sure to check out page 2 of his photostream: [Link]

I think most of the photos would be better if presented upside down like the one on top but even still ost are very beautiful. Here is a direct link to the photo above: [Link]

Britta Steffen: "I'd like to see everyone swimming in a normal bathing suit..."

Britta Steffen on tech-doping over at Reuters: "I'd like to see everyone swimming in a normal bathing suit," said Steffen, who set a European 100 metres freestyle record of 53.20 seconds at the German championships in April.

"That way we could see who's the best swimmer and not who has found the best material. I'd have no problem finishing second or third and knowing 'Okay, you just weren't better than the others'. [Link]

The photo above is Britta Steffen exiting the pool. The photo was found on guyomedw's photostream at Flickr. Here is a direct link to the photo: [Link]

To Russia with love: WNBA players from the USA will play for the Russians in Beijing!

Should swimmers do the same? I think so because I think the Olympics are about individual accomplishments not national identity.

However, If one thinks that the Olympics are peaceful contest between Nations, then I can understand the point of view that it would be an unpatriotic thing to do. Your opinion may vary: Snippet from the Star Tribune: "... Lynx star Seimone Augustus will play in the Beijing Olympics this August. So will San Antonio's Becky Hammon, whose team plays the Lynx today at Target Center.

But the two WNBA all-stars won't be teammates.

Hammon, a 5-6 point guard for the Silver Stars, will play on the Russian women's basketball team in Beijing.

"I was looking at two doors," said Hammon, a native of Rapid City, S.D. "I could go home to my apartment and watch the Olympics [on TV] or I could take part, which would be so much better. ..." [Link]
Gary Hall, Cullen Jones, Benjamin Tobriner and other sublime contenders could face each other in the final of the 50m free. Only two can go. However, what if Gary Hall, Jason Leezak, Cullen Jones or any of the rest placed third but got an offer from Dubai, or the location of their ethnicity to swim for a different country, how would that hurt the United States or any individual within this country?

As a matter of fact, the European Union is now accepting dual citizenships applications from the United States. Seriously! Here is an article from the Palm Beach Post: [Link]

If you placed third at Olympic trials but logged a time that was exceptionally elite, what would you do and what if a fee was involved by a second country? I myself think it would not only be ethical, but it would prove what a melting the United States is.

That awesome photo of Gary Hall and Cullen Jones taken at the 2007 Charlotte Ultraswim; a photo which makes you wonder what each is thinking, is from Sorrento66's photo stream at Flickr.com. Here is a direct link to the photo: [Link]

Here is a swim post to 'wash off' the digust you may have with the Marion Jones/Oprah confessional!

Here is the "pool" for an Olympic games that took place between 1910 and 1915. The Library of Congress has released 3000 copyright free images to Flickr.com for distribution. I used the search term: "swim" and these are the images that came up.

Check out that guy with the steam-punk goggles and Hawaiian scarf fashioned into a Speedo: [Link]

Knitted aquatic animals

Here is a Flickr stream by gooseflesh, a talented artist who knits and crochets sea creatures: [Link]

Insert your own Flickr photo-stream within your blog or website

I am experimenting so to speak. Here are some photos of both the 2006 & 2007 Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim.

There is this Flickr 'gizmo' out there where if you have a blog or a website you can copy/paste code from this 'gizmo' called "Picto Browser" and subsequently insert your personal Flickr photo-set within your site or blog.

I quickly threw this Alcatraz set together to see how it works. (I plan on using this tool when I blog swim meets and open water swims.)

If you have a Flickr account, click the info tab below on the Picto Browser above to learn how you can do it.

UPDATE: I spent 20, err, 27 minutes of my lunch hour getting this to work. Bleeech! For it to work in Blogger if you have to go into the HTML code and type in these numbers in two different places in the code for the height and width to scale correctly. Here they are: height="350" width="406". (I am an artist, not an engineer, Capt'n.

Michael Phelps at Duel in the Pool

I found this amazing technique shot of Michael Phelps over at Fickr.com. (Here is a link to the photographer's Flickr stream.) It looks as if he can't wait to grab a couple barrels full of water and displace them somewhere else.