olymPICTS • contrasting views

Most emotional moment of the Olympics in Beijing

2008-08-24T00:50:00.000-07:00

Most emotional and truthful moment of the Beijing Games (for me)

All for love - Matthias Steiner won Gold for his dead wife - Olympia 2008 (Youtube)

... Matthias Steiner, of Germany, played out the great drama of his life yesterday, seizing an opportunity to lift the world above his head and then to sob his heart out for his dead wife, Susann, standing on the stage with her picture in one hand and his gold medal in the other.

She died in a car crash a year ago and since that terrible day Steiner has flung himself into his sport as if it was the only thing that could ever make life bearable.
...

Matthias Steiner’s triumph is worth the wait (Times online)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4567241.ece

Faked!? Yes, a difference in mentality – not surprising

2008-08-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

A post at athlists.com has been enthusiastically digged (up to now 2,429 diggs!). Athlists.com finds itself in naive posture, I think, when listing some phenomena and summ it up as "Fake Olympics".

The deeper question is, what is behind the difference on the surface? The Western hemisphere has a different appreciation of authenticity, the "real thing", originality and feels deceived, when things like this happen.

I don't know enough about Chinese mentality, but I suppose it is deeper rooted than in the decades of stupid indoctrination of the "Communist Party" (which is more similar to feudalist structure and with so much corruption all over the country). Manic striving to perfection ends in simulation and inhumanity. The idea of antique Olympics was quite the opposite of what is it today I suppose.

Athlists » Blog Archive » The Fake Olympics: How China Is Using Every Trick in the Book to Dazzle The World http://www.athlists.com/?p=36

Image source http://www.athlists.com/?p=36

The "tag movement" around #080808 (you must have twitter)

2008-08-12T05:03:00.000-07:00

That cool 080808 mashup guys

Tag080808

View SlideShare presentation (tags: chinabeijingolympics olympic tag 080808)

Chinese Tweeters Celebrate Olympics With #080808

By STEVEN SCHWANKERT, IDG News Service\Beijing Bureau, IDG
Published: August 8, 2008

A new online movement less than 24 hours old seeks to spread the Olympic spirit among users of the Twitter micro-blogging site.

Using "#080808" (pronounced "tag 080808"), a symbol for the date of the Olympics opening day, August 8, 2008, is "just for fun, a way to 'write down' the day," said Steven Lin, one of the movement's co-founders, who works for official Olympic Web site Sohu.com as a project manager. ...

#080808 | Blog: New York Times Coverage of #080808 http://tag080808.com/2008/08/nytimes-coverage-of-080808-080808.html

Check it out: http://tag080808.appspot.com/

Just do it! Create a web page to collect all user generated content tagged with "#080808" all over the world? ...
#080808 | Blog: Junyu: How the mash-up was created http://tag080808.com/2008/08/junyu-how-mash-up-was-created.html

Compare the tag's fitness with the alternatives

BEST #080808 - Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+%23080808+
#olympics - Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+%23olympics
#bg08 - Twitter Search http://search.twitter.com/search?q=+%23bg08

(search.twitter.com shows no numbers, but the popularity can be estimated when you look down to the date of the last tweet on the first page)

tag080808, 080808tag,

Good news: The Great Fire Wall comes down (Guardian)

2008-08-10T11:09:00.000-07:00

... Just a week ago, it was impossible to connect to Chinese Wikipedia or the the Chinese BBC News site via a public ISP in China. Your browser either didn't respond or displayed an error message telling you that it couldn't connect to the site. What happened? They were blocked by the Great Fire Wall. Why? Because they were regarded as "dangerous sites... harmful information intending to demonise China and its people". The Chinese authorities think their people need no more information than what the official news agency feeds them. Or rather, they dare not allow them to find out more.
But things are changing. At the beginning of August, these sites suddenly became available to internet users in China. ...

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/10/censorship.china?gusrc=rss&feed=worldnews

I appreciate this and hope it will last.

Behind the facade

2008-08-09T02:05:00.000-07:00

The free flow of information is the purpose of the internet.

When your government does not like you to see something it is blocking this free flow.

Make the test:

世界人权宣言 / Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www.amnesty.org/

Chinese language page

Amnesty International Report 2008 http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Asia-Pacific/China

To remind all participants I have changed my twitter logo/avatar.

Cool - BBC's Olympic Map shows tweets and blogs

2008-08-07T05:50:00.000-07:00

This picture to the left is only a screenshot of course and NOT interactive.

Go to original site news.bbc.co.uk/..., roll over the mobile phone icon and latest twitter tweets occur. Same with the other icon – showing latest blog posts of BBC bloggers.

China's hunt for medals and the price of childhood

2008-08-06T15:30:00.000-07:00

Just saw a documentary film about the cruel "Chinese way" of training children. The Red Race. It was disgusting and makes one sad and angry. I think that China has a long way of civilisation-as-humanism ahead.

Image source: SILVERDOCS | Festival http://silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/red-race/

It’s clear what Chao Gan, director of The Red Race, want us to feel about China’s gymnastics training schools for children. The documentary is mostly a series of scenes in which adorable kids are brought to tears by screaming coaches who push them past their breaking points physically and emotionally.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=35722

more: Children taking the strain in China's hunt for medals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1904325/Children-taking-the-strain-in-Chinas-hunt-for-medals.html

Olympic twitters list – Beijing Games 2008

2008-08-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

Olympic twitters list – Beijing Games 2008 – professional twitters – twitterers you should submit

- to be continued -

http://twitter.com/beijingolympic

Name beijingolympic
Location Beijing
Web http://2008gamesbeijing.com
Bio Blogging the Beijing Olympics

http://twitter.com/gvoolympics

Name GVO Olympics Special
Location Beijing Olympic Village
Web http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/special/olympics
Bio I am the Global Voices Online Olympics blogger

http://twitter.com/virtualreview

Name virtualreview
Location Beijing
[ background news concerning china, e.g. pollitical protests, acts of terror etc. ]

http://twitter.com/NBCOlympics

Name NBCOlympics
Location Beijing
Web http://www.nbcolympics.com
Bio NBCOlympics.com 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes News Videos Results Schedules Medals
[ it is NBC / MSNBC – sport news, USA centric coverage ]

http://twitter.com/NPOlympics

Name NPOlympics
Location Vancouver, Canada
Web http://www.nowpublic.com/tag/Beijing+2008
Bio NowPublic Olympics Channel
[ user generated news – speecial interest in political issues and backgrounds ]

Total Solar Eclipse 1st August 2008 from China

2008-08-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

Total eclipse dazzles viewers in China
01 August 2008 - New Scientist - Space http://space.newscientist.com/....
Image source: newscientist.com

YouTube - total solar eclipse China 01/08/2008

Best Beijing guides

2008-07-30T03:15:00.000-07:00

Some Links (I will update from time to time)

WSJ – Cool Google map with annotated places of the games: http://graphicsweb.wsj.com/documents/beijing_guide/beijing_guide08.html
Beijing Travel Guide - Hotels, Restaurants, Sightseeing in Beijing - New York Times Travel http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/asia/china/beijing/overview.html
Beijing Travel Guide and Travel Information - Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide/china/beijing/
Beijing City Weekend Guide http://www.cityweekend.com.cn/beijing/events/olympics/
Qype Beijing (user reviews about bars, restaurants, there are not so much up to now, it is user generated - so it is YOU, who can change this; find the best places, friendliest hosts, coolest bars!) http://www.qype.com/cnr-beijing

Olympics Theme Song: friends forever (have a try)

2008-07-29T03:27:00.000-07:00

"Forever friends" - Yes, composers Moroder and Kunze really know how to create that special feeling

"Forever friends?" - Ups, Youtube page says: "Adding comments has been disabled for this video." Maybe for some people there is just too much tension between words and deeds of the chinese government (the t-word). By the way, I like free speech and take it just to be a necessity for complex and dynamic societies.

Ten days from now

2008-07-28T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today: Waiting for Olympic Tickets in Beijing

You got none? Find comfort in watching this ...
US Cheerleaders prepare Beijing Olympic Cheer squad

While the waiting ... watch Gregs fingers

2008-07-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

Greg Irwin's Finger Fitness exercise program – it looks quite easy and realxing ...

While the countdown ... bejingopera + reggae =

2008-07-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

My blog for the Beijing Games

2008-07-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

THE IDEA

Find something cool on Flickr, Youtube, elsewhere!
All around the topic of the Beijing Games
Just send an email with the link to giambata a t gmail.com (no files please)
... or put the link to the comment
Watch my http://twitter.com/olympics08
Twitter hashtag #olympicts
Maybe I have time to start a contest