London Olympics to Include Toilets Not Facing Mecca

The Olympic brass is already hard at work with the logistics of the London 2012 Games.

London - Olympic organizers issued detailed design rules for the 2012 London games Wednesday, including a mandate that at least some toilets in the Olympic park do not face the holy Islamic city of Mecca. (The Seattle Times)

The committee - deemed the Olympic Delivery Authority - says they're dedicated to creating an atmosphere that appeals to as many people from different cultures as possible.

More details like this to be flushed out I'm sure.

Links:

2012 Olympics rule: Toilets that don't face Mecca (Seattle Times)
Olympic Delivery Authority

Horrific Crash at the Paralympics!

At yesterday's 2008 Paralympics in Beijing, a huge pileup occurred in the final seconds of the women's 5000 meters, with six of eleven racers getting taken out in the last 500 m of the race.


Canada's Diane Roy, who set a Paralympic record with a time of 11:45:03, was awarded the gold. But after three of the nations competing protested, officials decided the race would be re-run.

In other Paralympics news, the Brits are raking in the medal count.

Anthony Lappe made it a perfect 11 out of 11 for Britain in cycling events, with a gold in the men's sprint for the visually impaired! Here he is pictured with pilot Barney Storey, whose wife Sarah Storey won gold for Britain in cycling as well.


Check out highlights of yesterday's events from Paralympic.tv's YouTube channel - including Lappe's gold medal (world record setting to boot) run, and that wild crash...



Links:

After crash, women's wheelchair 5,000 will try again (Universal Sports)
Paralympics: Swimmers and cyclists add five golds to British haul (The Guardian

Wii Fit girl plays Beijing 2008 video game

In 2008, Jo Garcia was named Playboy's Cyber Girl of the Year - an honor and distinction I (rightfully) would not have assumed had much to do with her video game prowess. She first captured our attention with her reprise of that anonymous girl's Wii Fit hula hooping in her underwear. And now, they got Jo to test out Sega's less-than-sensuous Beijing 2008 game.

And it has exposed her, as a huge nerd.



Did they have to cut some takes of her talking about using the pink glove to jerk the analog stick that sounded more awkward? How much of her snorting at her own jokes was edited out?

By the way, Jo, geeky is adorable. Don't ever change.

Link:

Cyber girl Jo Garcia plays video game Beijing 2008 (Uncommon Sportsman)

Peyton petitions for Football in the Olympics!

He thinks it's completely bogus that we can't throttle other countries on an Olympic gridiron.



Hat tip to NyHoosier

Link:

MakeFootballAnOlympicSport.com
YouTube

TOSS THE BURNER: Aug. 28, 2008

Reminding you to drink responsibly this Labor Day, and always buckle up...

Norm Macdonald Tells Nastia Liukin: Olympic Judging Is 'Commie Gobbledygook' (FANHOUSE)
Six Types of Sports Bloggers (The Sports Dollar)
LaDainian works the Kenmore frost-free heavy bag (Kissing Suzy Kolber)
Michael Phelps To Host Season Premiere of 'Saturday Night Live' (FANHOUSE)
7 of the Worst Basketball Related Songs I Care to Remember! (The Hoops Doctor)
Sign Language (Hugging Harold Reynolds)

TOSS THE BURNER: Aug. 26, 2008

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Check. Your. Local. Listings.

In an effort to get StuffTheOlympicsLiked.com up and running, posts here are going to be short and sweet.

Doesn't mean they can't contain a bucket of awesome, however.

With that said, if you get FitTV you should be watching Namaste Yoga. For your viewing pleasure...



It's yoga that can be enjoyed from your couch, with a can of Budweiser! The HR guy at my company turned me onto this by the way - god bless him.

TOSS THE BURNER: Aug. 22, 2008

Hamlet 2 opens tonight, here's a delightful track from the movie titled Rock Me Sexy Jesus.

...video after the links as well.

Fake PTI Video, Le Batard and Coach Wannstedt (NESW Sports)
Chromeo performs with Daryl Hall (via Pop Candy)
Chinese Men Mesmerized By Olympic Cheerleaders (Busted Coverage)
Chiukeung, LEGO Ambassador (And One)

TOSS THE BURNER: Aug. 21, 2008

Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh won the gold medal yesterday during a rain storm. (I don't know what I did to deserve that). I could see this match living in my DVR for quite awhile.

Anyone else lose count of how many time Karch Kiraly said wet balls?

Exclusive Clip From 'Choke' (via Pop Candy)
Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor Win Gold in Rain Soaked Beach Volleyball (Fanhouse)
How to Get Around Nintendo's Pesky, 330-Pound Wii Fit Weight Limit (The Sporting Blog)
USAIN BOLT=INSANE (Epic Carnival)
Grab A Beer & Watch Racewalking (Busted Coverage)


Seriously, what do I need to do to host my own women's beach volleyball tournament?

What's another 400,000 in Olympic condom distro?

Last week, I heard that the IOC and Co. were injecting the Olympic Village with a cache of condoms, totaling 100,000 in count.



Au contrere, mon frere.

The Beijing Health Bureau thought this initial number was tailored more to a Young Life church lock-in, and decided let's just bump that up to half a mil, shall we?

"About 400,000 free condoms have been distributed [by the Beijing Health Bureau] to 119 contract hotels of the Olympic Games to ensure that safe sex takes place during the fortnight-long event...Xinhua quoted Jin Dapend [Beijing Health Bureau’'s Party chief] as saying that condoms had been put in over 90,000 rooms of 424 hotels rated three stars and above." (Freshnews.in)

Unsure if it's related (it is), but Michael "Prowl-Mode" Phelps can't seem to get this look off his face since wrapping up...his competition portion of the games.







LINKS:

Beijing health bureau officials distribute 400,000 condoms for safe sex during Olympics
When Not Busy, Hoops Stars Flock To Beach Volleyball

TOSS THE BURNER: Aug. 19, 2008

Enjoy the trailer for the ATHF movie "Colon"

Muxtape Shut Down For Now (via Pop Candy)
College Fan Sees Every Team, Needs New Hobby (Sports By Brooks)
Mixed Martial Arts in the Olympics? It Just Makes Sense (Fan IQ)
Team Domination (Mac Gs World)
Michael Phelps Sportsmanship, Funny Video (NESW Sports)

....linoleum knife!

Michael Phelps Gets Greedy! (Chows Down)

According to this, Phelps is more apt to house a lumberjack than stick to his alleged diet regimen.



(via The Guardian)

Michael Phelps Eats 12,000 Calories a Day!

He refers to the left page of a Ponderosa menu as the Individual Medley. (NY Post)


This guy's diet makes my Thanksgiving look like peril of third world famine.

Every Single Hot Beach Volleyball Photo from the Olympics...

The Angry T for Pope...see the madness here.



Slowly curbing my Olympic woes.

TOSS THE BURNER: August 13, 2008

If you're a Pandora aficionado, create a Lil' Wayne playlist - you won't be disappointed. The story about him in Blender more or less predicts his imminent spontaneous combustion.

Congratulations to Jamie Mottram on the birth of his first kid (Mister Irrelevent)
Wake up with Misty May (Barstool Sports)
Lebron James, 2008 Olympic Diving Alternate, Video (NESW Sports)
The Ultimate NES Collection for sale (Average Dudes)
China's badminton bad boy has girls swooning (via Deadspin)



...I would have bet the house that there was at least a double ff, cc, or nn in aficionado.

The Olympic Village is Gonna Be Rockin'!

If you weren't aware that the Olympics is a concentrated meat market, then you haven't tuned into beach volleyball yet, or synchronized swimming, or synchronized diving (or badminton, for that matter!)

Anyways, the IOC took notice...

"The UNAIDS, the Beijing organising committee BOCOG and International Olympics Committee are providing 100,000 condoms as part of a campaign on HIV prevention and anti-discrimination. At the Sydney Games in 2000 athletes quickly exhausted a supply of 70,000 and another 20,000 had to be brought in."

The initial plan to distribute 250,000 was met with religious protest, and the numbers were scaled back.

Chinese condom maker, Elasun, is cashing in big time on the Chinese internet with the Olympic sport-themed ad campaign that features cycling, basketball, archery, and swimming.

archery

swimming

cycling

...The stick-man swimming upstream kind of messes with your head, no? And, the archery, well, that's just brutal.

LINKS:

Condoms to satisfy needs of "young, strong, single" Olympic athletes (The Star Phoenix)
Olympic condom ads (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Kicking off the medals with a blah-dow!

Enough of the pageantry and hullaballoo, time to start banging out medals...literally.

The first gold medal will be give out on Saturday...in an event with guns! (umm, awesome?) The home country could jump out to the early lead in the medal count, as China's Du Li is expected to take gold in this event - the Women's 10-Meter Gat-off. (fine, it's actually called the 10 m. Air Rifle)


Expectations for this snipette couldn't be higher, as China dominated the 2004 shooting events - winning four golds, nine medals in total. The pressure is so intense that her coach hired Du - who took gold at Athens - a psychologist leading up to the competition.


The Loot officially starts being handed out Saturday Morning when IOC President Jacque Rogge will present the medals himself to the winners of Women's Air Rifle.

Links:

Shooting Set To Kick Off Olympic Programme (The Telegraph)

TOSS THE BURNER: August 8, 2008

Here's Radiohead at Lollapalooza last week (Seeing them tomorrow at All Points West! Huzzah!)

Gina Carano, Cris Cyborg to Fight (Not Each Other) at Next CBS EliteXC Show (Fanhouse)
In Case You Forgot, There Are Sports at the Olympics (FanIQ Blog)
A Blogger's Schedule (The Sports Dollar)
Winnie Cooper wrote a book! (Cuzoogle)
“Pineapple” Breaks Wednesday Record (The Zaz Report)

Beijing Stadium Designer Won't Attend Opening Ceremony

Chinese Artist, Ai Wei Wei, a design consultant for the Bird’s Nest Stadium, says he plans to stay away from the Olympic Opening Ceremony.

"The "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, which I helped to conceive, is designed to embody the Olympic spirit of "fair competition". It tells people that freedom is possible but needs fairness, courage and strength. Following the same principles, I will stay away from the opening ceremony, because I believe the freedom of choice is the basis of fair competition. It is the right I cherish most."

Ai Wei Wei

In a by-line article for The Guardian, Wei Wei says he wanted the stadium to represent freedom, not autocracy, and that China must change.

"We live in a world where everything is politicised, but some people insist the Olympics should be different. They imply that this fortnight of sport is somehow disconnected from history and psychology, unrelated to theory and morality and on a more elevated plane than base human nature. They argue that anyone who links the games with politics has sinister ulterior motives, that they are anti-Chinese. But the real reason they don't like politics is because any discussion of the subject reminds people who was responsible for making China so detached from the rest of the world."

...

The Olympics are planning to throw quite the bruhaha to celebrate the unveiling of this stadium. They’re going to blow up 35,000 fireworks in 1,800 locations around the city. People are so pumped, they’re not even complaining that Jackie Chan is performing. (musically!)

And as the designer at the center of this spectacle, Wei Wei stands to take a healthy share of the credit (Who designed the Athens Olympic Stadium? Zeus?) Wei is an important player and this is his big moment. The fact that he's willing to forego his ultimate celebration because he thinks it's all a guise and a sham is admirable.

Good for you, Asian Zeus. I respect your conviction.

LINKS:

Beijing Olympics: The Bird's Nest stadium (The Telegraph)
Why I'll stay away from the opening ceremony of the Olympics (The Guardian)

TOSS THE BURNER: August 7, 2007

BLUEPRINT 3 from kwest on Vimeo.

NYHOOSIER let's us know that Blueprint 3 in on the way!

SI Pop Culture Grid (Extra Mustard)
It’s a Really Big Shoe (And One)
Programmer or Writer? (The Sports Dollar)
Natalie Gulbis Shows Leg In Cold British Temps (Busted Coverage)
The Michael Vick Saga Comes to Animal Planet (Over the Top)