A Question of Perspective

Can you guess what this is? It’s probably not what you think, so ponder it for a spell and then check out Wired for the answer (linked below).

I’m a sports fan, so I was interested in the Olympics before the opening ceremonies, but it took a day or two to come back down to the sporting event aspect of it for me.  I was still caught up in thinking about the spectacle of the opening. I’m sure there were thousands of artistic and technical creatives involved from the costumers to the programmers to the riggers. But the guy getting all of the credit (well-deserved) is Zhang Yimou best know to limited American audiences as the director of Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, and The House of Flying Daggers. Steven Spielberg was involved as an advisor for a couple of years before resigning for political reasons (Darfur).  The technology behind the art and the sport, too, is covered in Wired.  [I, especially, enjoyed the multimedia gallery of legal performance boosters.]   To my disappointment, I read yesterday that the firework footsteps leading to the stadium were digitally inserted into the live feed.   This may be an exceptionally politically important Olympics and there is controversy, sure, but as this video piece from the Council on Foreign Relations shows, it’s always been a political event.

Not everyone can be an Olympian, of course. Ever wonder how you’d compare to Tyson Gay or Michael Phelps?  These “average joes” shot video of themselves doing 5 olympic events, split-screened the video, and compared results. My favourite event is Dens trying to do the rings. I went to NYU with him (he’s way above average, btw) and someone on the alumni list responded to that video with this most-excellent selection — very helpful for anyone wanting to become an Olympian: Grover’s Monster Workout!

What to know what’s on where and when? Check the NBC listings, they break it down for the user by channel, time, and sport. Very useful, indeed, and Google’s got some nifty Olympic gadgets, too.