Speaker by Various Artists

protest parks.
yeah, right.

the economic and social model pursued by china for the past 20 years is so f-ed up and doomed to collapse under the weight of its own corruption and ecological destructiveness that, well, it's hardly worth commenting on.

except that its demise is going to have some ramifications for all of us, to put it mildly...

(btw, the IOC is probably the most corrupt of all large international organisations, so they really do make a lovely couple, CCP+IOC)

nice post, emma (another emma!). just thought you might be interested in this blog post on the difference in male and female uniforms at the olympics.

Thr insight to protest parks was well appreciated however I can confirm

'Sold out' does not actually mean there are no empty seats in the stands

is prexactly true if NZ as well...

hmmm - maybe I could get gold next time just by showing up - what do you think gymnastics or swimming? (I guess we need at least two of us to actually be synchronised)

oh and ski jumping can only be done by guys .... perhaps we need to combine these sports - give the jumpers ribbons or something

Paul, I don't know you but I feel like I would enjoy seeing you in speedos glittering with diamantes and sequins cavorting with another bloke in the water.

And Anjum, thanks for the link. Interesting pics there. I hunted for beach volleyball uniform specifications and found only this on the FIVB website: "A player’s equipment consists of shorts or a bathing suit. A jersey or “tank-top” is optional except when specified in Tournament Regulations. Players may wear a hat." Regulations for the Athens Games stipulate the 6cm rule for women's bikini briefs. It also says men's shorts must be no longer than 20cm - not the board style shorts they actually wear. Hmm.. What annoys me is that if all the female players just refused to wear skimpy bikinis then it wouldn't be an issue. We women are our own worst enemies sometimes.

The story link about the popularity of cosmetic surgery was interesting, but what was more interesting was the "popular stories" bit at the bottom. The stories were all stuff like "Sailing girls know how to work it" or "Sexy Javelin Girl".

Good to see that the readers of Chinadaily are about as classy as Stuff.co.nz's Editor's Picks

Yep, top of China Daily website's popular stories right now is "German Olympic Sportswomen Pose Nude for Playboy". The paper's hard copy edition regularly runs Hooters ads featuring busty young women in short shorts and tight tees on page one. Yes, page one. And this in a state-run paper that doesn't even need to make money.

"Foreign editors at the paper have been told that like most state-owned enterprises, the China Daily will no longer receive government subsidies and the newspaper's publication group is expected to show a profit. To this end, the paper has adopted a more commercial approach and its editorial content is being pitched increasingly towards a wider range of readers so as to attract more advertising revenue. The paper is still running at a loss in the increasingly competitive Chinese publication market"
(minus citation;r)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Daily

And this in a state-run _____ that doesn't even need to make money.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/24236057

I guess one reason I was mildly surprised was that I've always got the impression the PRC has a strong moral puritan flavour when it comes to things like that. Admittedly that impression is based on reading Western articles on China so it may not actually be substantially correct.

I don't know where that uncited Wiki bite came from - none of the foreign editors I know at China Daily have heard the paper will no longer receive state subsidies. There's no way they could continue to publish if that were the case. Today's 24 page edition has 22 ads -seven of them tiny and three for China Daily-related stuff. Not much revenue there. If they really needed to make money, they would sack dozens of surplus staff and get an advertising team that had a clue. The paper's sister publication, 21st Century- a stable of weekly mags for kids learning English - is known to be propping up the loss-making daily.

what do you mean propping up?

if it needs propping up then why? surely the increased reliance on poorly chosen advertising partners and rise of tabloid style articles is sufficent indication that the change is already afoot. It's unlikely it would be simply cut, as opposed to gradually reduced. But more to the point, sine when is there a precedent in China for the foreign staff not to be the last to hear about anything major affecting Chinese run and specifically state owned companies? This 'on a need to know' basis is a long held and prevalent characteristic of the way Chinese interact and do business with their foreign counterparts

I don't want to make a meal of this, but quoting you from 2006

..and an average urban wage of 900 yuan per month, it doesn’t take a PhD in accounting to figure out how much many families are sacrificing to send their kids to university.

when almost all other sources at that time quoted the average urban wage as being almost double that.

I'm no journalist. but I think the place could be represented more accurately.

and to quote you from 2006-

At first glance, the China Daily - China’s most read English language mainland Chinese daily looks much like any other newspaper, except for a lack of advertising which is not needed to boost profits.

http://www.tewahanui.info/news/060901-beijingchinglish-moore.shtml

I would add another to the list - when did women hammer and discus competitors become so well ummmm errrrr slim and shapely?

They do seem to have completely changed shape in matter of couple of olympics. Or maybe that is just my remembrances playing tricks on me.

OMG, did anyone catch the 9-noon thearpy session for Richard (I'm a dick) Becht? It was truely insightful.

He starts as being uninterested in the Paraolympics and then goes on to say how as a child he couldn't bare to look and people with missing limbs or scars. Um..., did anyone recall the events for people with plastic surgery? I missed it, but Becht who claims to have not watched the paraolympics draws on images of childhood trauma to describe the paraolympians FFS!.

He compares the great success of Sophies 2 Golds and one Silver as being less deserving than Valarie Vilis single Gold. Excuse me here if I've missed something but is he comparing shotput with swimming?

Would it be wrong to point out that Valarie won in a womens event and did not throw (or is that put) as far as her male counterpart?

His calls for purity of sport and his disgust at paraolympians echoes the 1936 Olympics.

Sport With Richard Becht
A look at the week in sport and the weekend to come. (duration: 14′59″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3

whoops couldn't load 9-noon correctly

so here's the linky

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon