That’s about $476,000 per minute and almost $8,000 per second and more than twice the cost of the 2004 Athens opening ceremony One thing is for sure, London is going to have a hell of a task trying to top this one… UPDATE: Roger Ebert is quoting the other figure, $300 million. Now that would be a bit crazy. UPDATE: For info on the 2010 Vancouver Olympics costs]]>
Many who saw the Chinese team enter the Olympics asked ‘who is that little boy next to Yao Ming?’ He was nine-year-old Lin Hao, a survivor of the earthquake in Sichuan. 20 of the 30 classmates in his school perished in the disaster, but after freeing himself he went back into the rubble to find his classmates.
Lin Hao, the ‘hall monitor’ in his school encouraged his fellow students to sing songs to help keep up their spirits while rescuers worked to free them.
UNICEF is still taking donations for Chinese earthquake relief.
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The first Gold has been awarded to Czech Republic shooter Katerina Emmons in the women’s 10m air rifle competition.
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While most Americans are watching the opening ceremony (on tape delay) the events have already gotten underway in China, with http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7550802.stm#mce_temp_url# (of likely many) protests. Two students attempted to display a Tibetan flag at the dressage competition and were promptly removed by security police.
For those who didn’t know, due to some of the equestrian diseases that are present on the mainland (but not in Hong Kong) the Olympic committee opted to move all the horse events to Hong Kong where they will be held at the Sha Tin raceway and a new facility built especially for the Olympics.
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There are several new events in the Olympics appearing for the first time this Olympiad, including:
BMX (Mens & Womens)
Marathon Swimming (Mens & Womens)
3000m Steeplechase (Womens)
Team Table Tennis (Mens & Womens) (replaces doubles)
Women’s Team Foil (replacing men’s team foil)
Women’s Team Sabre (replacing women’s team epee)
And on top of that, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are appearing for the first time, and Serbia and Montenegro are appearing separately. Kosovo, which only recently was recognized by the IOC, is not prepared to send a team for this Olympiad.
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* 150 Russian tanks in the suburbs of the South Ossetian capital
* Georgia recalls 1,000 Georgian troops currently in Iraq.
* RussiaToday puts death toll at 1,400.
* Georgia claims 5 Russian aircraft shot down.
* 1000s of Russian / Cossack volunteer forces are heading for Ossetia.
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Wow! Unreal. Amazing. That was a pretty cool torch lighting.
First, the The Olympic torch entered the stadium and started a massive relay of about 7 or 8 Chinese Olympic Gold medalists. Nothing too out of the ordinary though the oppressive heat was definitely taking its toll on some in the crowd.
Eventually it was passed to 李宁 Li Ning, the Olympic Gold medalist for gymnastics who ‘took off’ straight up 100s of feet into the air like a kung fu fighter the movies (yes, he was on wires). He then ‘ran’ (you have to see it) around the entire stadium as a giant screen turned a picture of the torch into the faces of 1000s of torch bearers from around the world.
Absolutely stunning.
He ran to the end of the stadium and lit a giant ‘pipe’/wick thant shot up into the Olympic Cauldron and the games of the 2008 Olympiad are underway.
It’s midnight in Beijing. It means you have to stay up late to see this. DO IT! WATCH THIS! IT WAS AMAZING.
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I’ve been watching the Opening Ceremonies with everyone here (they’re smiling so much I suspect they are about to cry). It’s quite a pageant, with lots and lots of color, and some pretty interesting visuals of money, Chinese characters, boats and fans. I’m not sure what the hell it is all about–story of China or something–no idea. We’re watching in Cantonese (and no one hear speaks that).
Nevertheless, you should tune in tonight. It’s pretty wild. We’re only a half hour in or so and it’s pretty impressive. Amazing what you can do when you have like 10,000 performers are your command.
And remember, the parade tonight is NOT in alphabetical order, but stroke count order.
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AP is reporting that Russian television is claiming Russian troops are entering South Ossetia.
A Russian official denied bombing Georgia, but Russian state television said Russian troops were moving into South Ossetia and showed a convoy of tanks that it said had already crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.
UPDATE: BBC is reporting 150 pieces of armor coming through the tunnel (one does wonder why the Georgians did not blow it up)
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For many Americans you can now catch live coverage of the Georgia-South Ossetia crisis on the Kremlin’s Engilsh language service Russia Today. The MHZ Networks offers Russia Today as a free channel to residents in the Washington, DC area, and Russia Today is free to air on many satellites over the US. If you don’t have one of those services, you can also catch Russia Today’s Youtube Channel
Now, being a Russian channel, you’ll hear some stuff like:
* “We must stop the slaughter of Russians”
* “Russia will not tolerate deaths of compatriots”
and you won’t hear about Russian warplanes being involved or any resupply of South Ossetians from Russian territory.
But still, given that the US media is focused on the Olympics or the bus crash in Texas today (12 dead) at least you’ll get to hear something about what is going on (and lots and lots of live video).
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