MetaFilter posts tagged with olympics

James Powderly's story of his Beijing detention

kliuless — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 07:11:13 -0800

An American in Beijing's Detention Facilities (via kottke)

After hours without sleep and threats against their lives and the lives of their loved ones, Powderly and the other Americans began to crack. “That’s when I started to realize that I’m really good at being a douche-baggy art star, but I’m really bad at this secret agent business,” he said.

which can be compared/contrasted with recent police action in st. paul (and of course guantanamo), but also the larger image and reality in china.

Roger Ebert to Jay Marriotti

An Infinity Of Monkeys — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:02:41 -0800

An open letter to sports columnist Jay Mariotti , who resigned from the Sun-Times and lashed out during a TV interview announcing that newspapers were dead. (via Sports Filter)

Hands On A Hard Body

fourcheesemac — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:58:46 -0800

Sex at the Olympics. "I am often asked if the Olympic village . . . is the sex-fest it is cracked up to be. My answer is always the same: too right it is." Table tennis Olympian Matthew Syed dishes the dirt. (possibly NSFW, TimesOnline).

The winner in anti-medals?

twoleftfeet — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:31:58 -0800

Joel Stein on a new scoring system to improve the Olympic Games.

Inside the Olympics Stadium in 360 degrees

lou — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:20:54 -0800

Beijing Olympics Stadium, about 30 minutes before the the men's 100m final. A 360-degree view (including overhead) from the stands by Finnish photographer Kari Kuukka.

Olympic logos from 1896 to present

Brandon Blatcher — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:24:21 -0800

Olympic logos from 1896 to present. Tons of trivia too.

Well, there's a surprise

chuckdarwin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:51:03 -0800

Some of the female Chinese gymnasts are apparently under-age. It wasn't their skulls, their chins or their eyes that gave them away: it was the internet.

Swim, swim little fish, swim on...

batmonkey — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:15:31 -0800

The Pisces Effect is a statistician's find that birth sign may predict likelihood of Olympics medal victories relating to Zodiacal attributes. Past statistical studies indicate Pisceans may be bad drivers...with perhaps some fluctuation for hemisphere. One columnist feels Washington, D.C.'s problems (and potential) may be attributable to being Pisces. Maybe Pisceans [flash; auto/unstoppable sound] have more luck as horses. Previously: [post] [comments]

Lego Olympics

Upton O'Good — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:36:40 -0800

The Hong Kong Lego Users Group created an exhibition called Lego Sport City, a recreation of the Olympic Village in Lego. It's 3m x 8m, and has over 300,000 bricks; you can read more about it here and here. Brickshelf has a very comprehensive collection of photos here, including a lot of shots showing the construction and the smaller details. [Via /.]

Disaster Capitalism

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:35:26 -0800

"Like the dotcom bubble, the disaster bubble is inflating in an ad-hoc and chaotic fashion." Journalist Naomi Klein discusses how corporations and governments are working together more closely than ever, using the mandate of catastrophe — whether natural or man-made — to further concentrate power in fewer hands, with less oversight: from illegal sales of American police technology to China to avert hypothetical tragedies during the Beijing Olympics, to the privatization of water supplies in post-tsunami Sri Lanka.