GOLD is Spelled ..P-R-O-J-E-C-T 1-1-9

Ok, I admit it I'm an Olympics junkie. Whew, there I said it, feels good to get that out in the open. Something about the multiple sports and multiple countries competing against each other on the world stage is entertaining to me.

However, the real behind the scenes story of this Olympics is China's Project 119

What's Project 119 you ask?

Well wikipedia has a page for it but it's a simple redirect to China at the 2008 Olympic Games

We will get back to that page in a minute, but first some Chinese Olympic history.

Historically China has always done well in the mainstream events of diving and gymnastics as well as less published events such as shooting and badminton. Yes, there really is badminton at the Olympic Games. *sigh*

However, during the Olympics in Sydney, the Chinese team won only one gold in the following events:

Track and field, Swimming and other water events such as canoe and sailboat.
Guess how many gold medals were awarded in those events? Yup - 119

119 gold medals awarded in very publicized and televised events.

In 2001 China won the right to host the 2008 Summer Olympics and at the same time the Chinese State General Sports Bureau put forward “Project 119” with the aim of coming to the top in those events.

After winning the right to host this summer's Olympics, China was ecstatic. Officials promised the greatest Games ever held.

The following are excerpts from this article from BBC News.

There seems little doubt that China expected a glorious Olympic Games.
Speaking after being awarded the event in 2001, Liu Jingmin, vice-mayor of Beijing, looked forward with great hope.

"We have seven years to ensure that our country and our city are ready to host the best Olympic Games in the history of the world," he told state media.

China seemed eager to show the rest of the world how it had changed from a poor, isolated country into one with growing strength and prosperity.

"Hosting the Olympics would both mark China's triumphant arrival as a fully respectable country on the world scene and demonstrate exactly that to the population at home," said Andrew Nathan, a professor of political science at New York's Columbia University.

Hosting the Games has been a long-time dream of the Chinese authorities

At a rare briefing for foreign journalists last week, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that as far back as 1908 some of his countrymen had wanted to host the Olympics.

That thought is perfectly expressed in a slogan that has appeared in parts of Beijing. "Seize the opportunity of a century to realise the dream of a century," it says.

In the 2004 Athens Olympics, the Chinese team won four gold medals in those events, including Liu Xiang in the track and field men’s 100-meter hurdles; Xing Huina in the women’s10,000-meter race in track and field; Luo Xuejuan in the women’s 100-meter breast stroke; and Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun in the men’s C-2 500-meter canoe.

In the 2008 Games the home team could win more than a dozen medals in the Project 119 events—potentially enough to make a difference in a tight battle with the U.S. for the No. 1 spot. Given their traditional strength in table tennis, diving, badminton and gymnastics; their domination of shooting; their depth in women's sports such as weighlifting; and the usual surge in victories by the host country, the Chinese should easily top their 2004 totals of 63 medals.

FINAL RESULTS

	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Flag of United States	36	38	36	110
Flag of China	51	21	28	100
Flag of Russia	23	21	28	72
Flag of Britain	19	13	15	47
Flag of Australia	14	15	17	46

Remember that link early in the post. China at the 2008 Olympic Games Now would be a good time to visit it and check out the latest medal count.

Clearly this strategy is working but it's not without controversy.

BEIJING - Just nine months before the Beijing Olympics, the Chinese government’s news agency, Xinhua, reported that gymnast He Kexin was 13, which would have made her ineligible to be on the team that won a gold medal this week.

Is China Cheating and Covering it Up?

Either way, I'm sure the US isn't infallible in their gold medal chase either.

Just look how quickly America forgave and forgot about Michael Phelps' DUI in 2004?
A bit different than outright cheating but everyone makes mistakes. Maybe the Chinese government just lost her birth certificate?

CREDITS

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1142310/index.htm
http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/beijing/archive/2008/01/09/gold-rush-china-s-olympic-strategy-and-project-119.aspx
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/45023,features,chinas-119-olympic-dreams
http://opensourcemd.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/chinas-gold-medals-project-119/
http://lasvegasrater.com/news/is-china-cheating-in-the-olympics/

Creepy or Cool, you be the judge.

A friend sent me the following link to a video so I thought I would send it along.

I will paste a link to the article below the video so I don't spoil it for you.




ARTICLE HERE

$62 and Worth Every Penny

So, I finally did what millions of other people already have.

No, I didn't sleep with Paris Hilton, I finally saw Dark Knight.

All I can say is WOW... Best Superhero Movie Ever. Seriously that is worth repeating.
It's the best superhero movie ever made. Even if you aren't a first run theatre type person, this is worth the trip.

Movie tickets -- $20
Baby sitter -- $20
MMM snacks -- $22

Heath Ledger's performance -- Priceless!

It's really not necessary to hype it up any more than it already has been and you certainly don't need to just take my word for it. There are plenty of online reviews floating around.

So, on that note I bring you the

Summer 08 movie season

First a quick review: My predictions for the year were

1. Iron Man
2. WALL - E
3. Indiana Jones
4. Dark Knight
5. Hancock

Actual Results As of August 1, 2008

The Dark Knight	$393,751,065
Iron Man	$315,687,768
Indiana Jones	$314,331,661
Hancock	$215,883,222
Kung Fu Panda	$210,480,901
Wall-E	$204,078,076

results courtesy of boxofficemojo

I don't think even Warner Bros expected this much from their latest masterpiece so hopefully this fuels the Marvel fire even more to make the next few movies just as good as Iron Man.

I have seen eight of the current top 10 movies so in case anyone is interested I will post my reviews in a few days.

Even with the incredible success of Dark Knight my two big surprises of the summer are.

1. Kung-Fu Panda, didn't see that coming, but shows just how many kids still go to the movies.
2. Prince Caspian, negative $59,000,000 to date, just might be the end of that franchise.

Overall a good summer in my opinion. Now let the Oscar races start.

Great News for Satellite Radio Subscribers?

I LOVE my XM Radio. About a year ago I bought a used XM radio from a friend and I've never looked back. I listen to it everyday in the car, at home through Direct TV, I sign in and listen online and also pull my radio out for vacations etc.

At this point I am very pleased with the service and stations I currently receive.

Needless to say I was a bit excited but leery at the latest news below.

Excited for more channel and programming offerings but nervous that this will mean a chance to jack up the monthly costs by offering programming "packages"

$2 for this, $3 for that etc

SIRIUS AND XM COMPLETE MERGER

SIRIUS XM Radio Chosen as New Corporate Name

Combined Company Has Over 18.5 Million Subscribers, Annualized Second Quarter Revenue Exceeding $2.4 Billion

Company to Offer Consumers Best of Both Services, While Maximizing Significant Efficiencies

SIRIUS XM Reiterates Financial Guidance; Expects 2009 Synergies of $400 million and 2009 Adjusted EBITDA of over $300 Million

NEW YORK, NY – July 29, 2008 –SIRIUS Satellite Radio (NASDAQ: SIRI) and XM Satellite Radio today announced that they have completed their merger, resulting in the nation’s premier radio company. The new company plans to change its corporate name to Sirius XM Radio Inc. The combined company’s stock will continue to be traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “SIRI”.

SIRIUS XM Radio begins day one with over 18.5 million subscribers, making it the second-largest radio company, based upon revenue, in the country; and, based upon subscribers, the second largest subscription media business in the U.S. With under 10% penetration of the home and car market, the opportunity for continued growth is significant.

The Impact of Technology

Ok, normally I would do a bunch of research and comb the internet trying to find some articles backing up my theories but this time I'm simply going to make a blanket statement.

Technology is destroying fundamental skills

Two everyday examples of this:

1. Google
2. Cell Phones

How many times have you mispeled a word only to have Google conveniently correct it for you?

In fact, even as I'm typing this blog Firefox is "helping" me correct my spelling with an inline spell checker.

*Sigh* Do we really need that much help?

Secondly, I wanted to share a story from my vacation.

A friend (we will call him Doris) and I recently took our families on vacation together.

Of course like almost all other Americans we brought our cell phones and we had this marvelous idea to contact each other the day we arrived since we were staying in the same cabin.

Well, for those who know Doris (aka Glenn) he's an even bigger geek than me and had just purchased a new iPhone. Also no surprise for those who know Doris, he didn't transfer his address book. Doh!

So now we have a problem.
I don't know his new number, he doesn't have my number, anarchy ensues.

To this day I can still remember my first girlfriend's phone number...I won't write it here but just trust me on it.
Ask me to recite my own mother's cell phone number and I have no clue.

Obviously these are only two small examples but hopefully you see my point.

Alas, I did find a couple articles worth mentioning.

This one from Wired

Your Outboard Brain Knows All

This wiki page

Spell Checker

and finally an oldie but a goodie post from Bex

Nope! I Don't Own a Cell Phone

Ode To Randy Pausch

So, if you didn't hear Randy Pausch passed away over the weekend.

Randy was one of the founders of the Alice programming language and a very good speaker.

If you haven't listened to his "Last Lecture" speech it is well worth the time.

One of his quotes during the speech is

"Experience is what you get when didn't get what you wanted"

Geez Make Up Your Mind

April 2001

Borders Turns to Amazon for Outsourcing

Renting online infrastructures is Plan B for struggling dot-coms

After three years in the red, the second largest U.S. bookseller is calling it quits online, choosing instead to outsource its operations to Amazon.com Inc.

In turn, Seattle-based Amazon is adopting a well-established model for drumming up additional revenue used by other dot-com companies with infrastructure to spare.

For an undisclosed fee, Amazon.com will take over the Web operations of Borders Online Inc. and relaunch it as a co-branded site. It will be powered by Amazon's e-commerce platform and technology infrastructure. The online retailer will also handle inventory, customer service and shipping services for book, music and video sales. Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders Group Inc. will receive a commission on sales, officials at both firms said.

"It's only gravy for Amazon," said Carrie Johnson, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "They're already in the book business, they've eliminated a competitor and they will possibly get new customers and some incremental revenue."

Amazon officials said the online merchant would also seek out additional opportunities to outsource its application infrastructure to other Web-based retailers, though no additional deals are in the works.

March 2007

Borders shelving Amazon alliance

Book company to compete directly with Net retailer

When Borders needed a high-powered and efficient Web-based delivery service six years ago, the book giant courted Seattle's Amazon.com.

But now the marriage has ended, and it could put a crimp on Amazon's revenue and earnings, one analyst says.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders Group Inc. said Thursday that it was severing ties with Amazon and will compete directly early next year against the Internet retail company, which has gone from selling only books to a wide range of products, from DVDs to clothing to food.

"We expect to drive sales and profits with it," Borders spokeswoman Anne Roman said of the company's planned Web site.

"We can mesh the in-store sales with online, which is something we have been missing."

Roman said the Web site would allow Borders to connect with 17 million customers who are part of the company's rewards loyalty program. Roman declined to disclose if its contract with Amazon had ended.

Patty Smith, an Amazon spokeswoman, said the company had no comment.

Before 2001, Borders had its own Internet business, but it wasn't profitable, Roman said. That led to the arrangement with Amazon, which operated Borders' Web site, took orders and delivered books.

Amazon obtained all the sales and gave an undisclosed cut to Borders, Roman said. Amazon also runs the Web sites for Target and Bebe and fills the orders.

The loss of Borders could cost Amazon $80 million to $160 million in annual revenue, according to an estimate by Scott Devitt, an analyst with St. Louis-based Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. Amazon and Borders wouldn't confirm or deny those figures.

Devitt said the loss isn't material to Amazon, which had revenue of $10.7 billion last year and $190 million in profits.

Devitt said the loss of Borders could result in a 2 percent decline in profits for Amazon.