Friday, August 8, 2008

Website of the Week: 2008 Olympic Games

This week's website is The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I realize that it's not even loosely a science website, but with the Summer Games starting today, it just seems right.

I've been reading online that there have been some calls to boycott the games due to China's history of human rights violations. Personally, I don't think boycotting the games makes much sense. It's one thing to draw attention to the problem, quite another to place the burden of the boycott on innocent bystanders, including those Olympic athletes who have trained their whole lives for this one shot at greatness.

I love the Olympics. I think the spirit and sense of camaraderie is wonderful. It gives me hope that we, as a world, can actually work together to solve our problems, environmental and otherwise.

Update (8/21/08): Check out Grist's list of Green Olympians!

2 comments:

Cheryl M. said...

There's a lot of science going on at the Olympics - just look at the new swimsuit designs, the aerodynamics of Michael Phelps off the wall, or the physics of gymnastics flips. I'm sure there could be a science-related topic for every day of the Olympics. I wish I had the time to look into it!

jublke said...

Great comment, Cheryl M.!

Did you watch the Opening Ceremony? I was amazed at the precision of the Chinese performers -- particularly in the sequence that looked like hundreds of moving boxes creating images and pictures. I was certain that it was all computer generated -- until the end when the performers jumped out and waved.