Consider the Olympics

[Nobar King]

Somehow the Olympic committee decided it would be a good idea to let China host the 2008 summer Olympics. It will be a miracle if the event goes thru as planned.

So far they have constructed a main stadium, an open air stadium, and the games are being held during monsoon season.

Geoengineers Will Prevent Rain Over Olympic Stadium in China

The top of China's "bird's nest" Olympic stadium is open to the elements, and therefore the government has ordered the Beijing Meteorological Bureau to make sure it won't rain during the games. The Bureau has already had some success preventing light rain, but heavy rain is harder to control. They'll use two different "seeding" techniques for dissipating droplets in frozen clouds, and dissipating warmer clouds before they start forming water droplets. Beijing's head of weather manipulation, Zhang Qian, explains how.

She said:

For cold clouds below zero degrees, we use a coolant made from liquid nitrogen to increase the number of droplets while decreasing their mean size. As a result, the smaller droplets are less likely to fall and precipitation can be reduced. For clouds above zero degrees we use the seeding agent silver iodide to accelerate the droplets' collision and coalescence, producing a downdraft which suppresses the formation of clouds.

China 'will stop the rain' [News.com via Slashdot]

I feel a lot better knowing those chinks can stop the rain now. What do we do when they decide to stop OUR rain?

Pollution hazards also threaten to affect the games:

Pollution risk for Olympic events

China is celebrating the one-year countdown to Beijing 2008

Olympic chief Jacques Rogge says air pollution could lead to some events at the 2008 Beijing Games being postponed. Speaking a year to the day before the start of the 2008 Games, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said: "It is an option. Sports with short durations would not be a problem, but endurance sports like cycling are examples of competitions that might be postponed or delayed."
Billions have been spent in an attempt to reduce pollution without success.

Report: Pollution risk for Olympic events
A host of factories have been shut down, while many others have been moved out of town, but non-stop construction and booming car sales have made air quality even worse.

SPORT EDITORS' BLOG
"I get out of the airport into the polluted atmosphere that has unfortunately become all too familiar - visibility is barely a few hundred metres"

Beijing's filthy air and clogged traffic are known to have worried Beijing organizers and the IOC for some time, but this is Rogge's strongest statement on the subject.
BBC sports news correspondent Gordon Farquhar said: "All the talk has been about human rights but there has been a growing realisation that Beijing has a smog problem. "People are beginning to come to terms with the fact it could be a major issue. Rogge said that some of the endurance events may be postponed and that would be disaster for the organisers."

BBC News' James Reynolds in Beijing added: "China is spending billions of pounds on new roads, new venues and on perfect celebratory shows but all that may come to nothing unless this city cleans up its air." However, postponing events might not be an option because race schedules have already been decided, according to Wang Junyan, the director of cycling events for the games.
Balloons and pigeons are released over Tiananmen Square


She added: "Rogge's comment reminds us that we have to work harder to fix environmental problems." Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates has already revealed that the country's athletes won't arrive in Beijing until just before the Games begin next August to avoid possible respiratory problems.

[Nobar King]

Re: Consider the Olympics

Even the new toilets are so good that the homeless are using them as homes:

No more squatting in Water Cube toilets?
By Liu Zhen Wed Mar 19,

BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing organizers are refitting the toilets at three main Olympic venues after complaints from foreign athletes about having to squat, an official said Wednesday.

Most toilets in China are still of the squat rather than sit-down variety, as spectators and competitors at recent test events in otherwise state of the art venues like the "Water Cube" aquatics center discovered.

The National Aquatics Center, also known as the 'Water Cube',
is lit up in different colors in Beijing March 4, 2008.

"In my personal point of view, there are cultural differences between Chinese and Western people. Chinese are more used to squat toilets," said Yao Hui, a senior official responsible for the management of Olympic venues. Toilet alteration projects at the Bird's Nest (National Stadium), the Water Cube and National Indoor Stadium are ongoing and if technical conditions permit, all the toilets in these stadiums will be changed."

A similar project will be expanded to more of the 31 venues in the city, he added.

"We will change the toilets in as many as we can, especially those for the key clients, athletes, Olympic family members and the media."

Beijing has 5,200 public toilets, the Beijing Evening Post reported earlier this month, more than any city in the world.

Yao said he believed that eventually, the majority of Chinese would use the sit-down variety of toilet, as people do in large parts of the developed world. "The Olympics is an opportunity to speed up the transition," he said.

Hopefully the Chinese will know how to use these toilets, and not just use them for doing the laundry.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Consider the Olympics

For those who can't read the Chinese Ideographs on the placards, the words say, "We will wade in the Blood of The Imperialists."

[ForGodsSake]

Re: Consider the Olympics

Makes you want to wish that you are a gold medalist in running.

[Nobar King]

Re: Consider the Olympics

Additional warnings for those considering visiting the Olympic games in China:

Olympics 2008 Fact Sheet (China)

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Bureau of Consular Affairs

The XXIXth Olympic Summer Games and the Beijing Paralympic Summer Games will take place from August 8-24, 2008, and September 6-17, 2008, respectively. There are seven major venue sites, six outside of Beijing, including Hong Kong, Qingdao, Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Tianjin. Equestrian events will be held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. Qinhuangdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Tianjin will host the soccer preliminaries.



The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympiad Games (BOCOG) website provides additional information on the XXIXth Olympic Summer Games, including information on hotel accommodations, tickets, transportation, and advice for spectators. Please see the Beijing Paralympic Summer Games website for information regarding those games. The U.S. Embassy’s Beijing Olympics website and the CDC travelers’ health website provide additional information to American citizens planning to travel to China or Hong Kong SAR to see or participate in the Games.


Many U.S. citizens will be traveling to the Olympics this summer. If you plan on being in China for events in August or September, early preparation is the key. Please review carefully the information presented here.

Security Assessment:
THREAT LEVELS: The threat level for terrorism against Americans in China remains low. However, any large-scale public event like the upcoming Olympic Games could become the focus of terrorist acts or other forms of violence. There is no reason to believe that U.S. citizens are being targeted at this time. However, recent violence in Tibet and a purported early March failed attempt to create an explosion on a passenger plane in flight from western China’s Xinjiang Province to Beijing are good examples of how potentially dangerous events can occur in the run-up to the Olympics. U.S. citizens planning travel to China should regularly check www.travel.state.gov for updated travel warnings, alerts or cautions. U.S. citizens planning to attend Olympic events or to participate in any large-scale public gatherings during the Olympic Games are advised to use caution and to be alert to their surroundings at all times. The threat level for political violence also remains low. In most major metropolitan areas, the Chinese authorities employ an overwhelming police/security presence to ensure that demonstrations remain peaceful. Protestors must receive an official permit from municipal authorities prior to being allowed to gather.

CRIME: Major metropolitan areas in China are relatively safe, especially in comparison with similar sized cities in other developing countries. A sizeable law enforcement and security presence serves as an effective deterrent against most types of crime, including those of a violent nature. Nevertheless, the Mission assesses that while the overall crime threat is low, the number of criminal incidents, including those directed against Americans, continues to rise.

Travelers are strongly encouraged to be aware of their surroundings while in China. Continued vigilance is necessary to reduce the likelihood of becoming a victim of crime. As a general rule, lesser developed areas in major cities have a higher rate of crime. Statistically, more crimes of opportunity transpire during early morning hours; for example, individuals who frequent bars, nightclubs, and similar establishments are more likely to be involved in physical altercations after midnight.

PRIVACY & SAFETY: All visitors should be aware that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy in public or private locations. All hotel rooms and offices are considered to be subject to on-site or remote technical monitoring at all times. Hotel rooms, residences and offices may be accessed at any time without the occupant’s consent or knowledge. Many hotels and apartment buildings may be of substandard construction, lack emergency exits, fire suppression systems, carbon monoxide monitors and standard security equipment (locks, alarms, and personnel). Americans traveling abroad should be reminded to review fire evacuation procedures for hotels, apartments or offices.

PRIVATE SECTOR SECURITY: Chinese law does not permit foreign private security officers to carry firearms in China. Foreign private security officers have no law enforcement authority in China. Due to the increased access restrictions around Beijing during the Olympics, the Mission recommends the use of expeditors and/or Chinese chauffeurs to assist the movements of VIPs. To date, Beijing Olympic organizers have established one approved private guard company during the Olympics to provide security services, Beijing Security Service General Company.

[Nobar King]

Re: Consider the Olympics

Please consider this article when discussing the potential Olympic boycott, or when planning your summer viewing sessions:

China harasses Christians ahead of Beijing Olympics

Posted on Mar 11, 2008 | by Erin Roach NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Baptist Press)--
With increased frequency, the Chinese government is persecuting house churches and banishing foreign Christians from the country, presumably to squelch voices who might draw attention to the plight of religious minorities in the nation surrounding the Beijing Olympics.

"We seem to be seeing a crackdown ahead of the Olympics. Whether that's to send a message to the church to lay low or whether it is to make sure that anybody who might cause international embarrassment is taken care of ahead of time, I don't know," Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for Voice of the Martyrs, told Baptist Press. "But we do see an increase in the level of arrests, the level of house church services being raided, that sort of activity. We also have seen a number of foreigners who are Christians who, when the time came to renew their visa they have been denied a new visa and told that they had to leave the country," Nettleton added. "So it's happening both amongst the house churches of native Chinese people as well as foreign Christians who are living and working in China. They're finding that they're no longer welcome."

Nettleton noted that about 20 percent of China's Christians are part of the official church -- the Three-Self Patriotic Movement or the Catholic version approved by the government -- while the other 80 percent go to unregistered or unofficial churches. "They don't actually have permission from the government to meet together, so their activities are illegal and they can be arrested, they can serve time in prison, their meetings can be broken up because they don't have that official government seal of approval on their meetings," Nettleton said of the 80 percent.

Nettleton said his best guess for the increase in persecution is that the Chinese government views the Beijing Olympics, scheduled for Aug. 8-24, as sort of a coming out party where the eyes of the world will be on them. "The Olympics are a huge event, there will be a huge amount of international attention focused on China," he said. "They want to make sure that they put their best foot forward, and having Christians doing some sort of protest or drawing attention to the religious freedom situation there would not be good PR. It would not make a good impression on the visitors from around the world, so they're going to do everything they can to make sure that doesn't happen."

China Aid Association, in its 2007 Persecution Report released in February, said the 60 reported cases of persecution against house churches in China last year was up 30.4 percent from 2006. CAA, a Christian rights defense organization, is based in Texas. The total number of people persecuted last year was 788, up 18.5 percent from 2006, China Aid said regarding 2007 statistics, and the total number of people arrested and detained was 693, up 6.6 percent. Sixteen people were sentenced to imprisonment, down 5.9 percent, according to China Aid records.

"Besides these figures, two types of cases need special attention: There are 17 cases of physical abuse in the persecution (beating, torture and psychological abuse), up 325 percent from that of 2006, and the number abused was 35, up 400 percent," China Aid said. "The other type is that many foreign Christians also suffered persecution mainly in the form of arrest, interrogation and expulsion from the country. The total number of people in this category is over 100 (84 of them are confirmed), up 833 percent from the year before." China Aid, in its persecution report, identified four categories of persecution: against house church leaders, against house churches in urban areas, against Christian publications and against foreign Christians and missionaries.

Among the foreign Christians and missionaries who were interrogated and expelled from China, most were from the West and a few were from South Korea and other countries, China Aid said. "Some of these foreign Christians were not missionaries, but had their own secular professions in China," the report said. "However, as they preached the Christian belief or were associated with local Christians and churches, they were persecuted by the government. This is the largest persecution operation of expelling foreign Christians since the early 1950s when the [Communist Party of China] drove out all of the foreign missionaries."

Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs said that despite the crackdown he doesn't see a high probability of Western Christians being harassed during the Beijing Olympics. "I know there are some groups who are specifically going to work on evangelism efforts during the Olympics. I don't know how it will be different from what they did in Athens [in 2004] other than the fact that in China they will need to keep a little lower profile," Nettleton said. "They'll need to be a little more cautious about the nature of their activities, about what they're doing, about drawing attention to themselves. But the reality is that, in my opinion, the chances of a foreigner being arrested for religious activities during the Olympics are very slim because the world will be watching and the Chinese government is so aware of the need for good PR and the need to sort of make this problem go away," he added.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in February urged President Bush to request to meet with people detained by the Chinese government for religious reasons when he attends the Olympics in August. The commission also asked Bush to attend an unregistered house church to draw attention to the Chinese government's religious freedom violations. Bush, during a White House news conference Feb. 28, said he would raise concerns about freedom of religion in China when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in August. "Every time I meet with him I talk about religious freedom and the importance of China's society recognizing that if you're allowed to worship freely, it will benefit the society as a whole; that the Chinese government should not fear the idea of people praying to a God as they see fit," Bush said. "A whole society, a healthy society, a confident society is one that recognizes the value of religious freedom."

[Dr. Otto Bond Sr.]

Re: Consider the Olympics

There are only two good things that ever came out of China: porcelain and manual labor, and most of the time even those things are second class and not suitable for True Christian(tm) use.

[Liam Joseph Donovan]

Re: Consider the Olympics

I really do hate China, no Human Rights and what they say is communism but is really dictated capitilism.

[Boomerang]

Re: Consider the Olympics

And they eat anything that moves!

[Pastor Ezekiel]

Re: Consider the Olympics

I for one have never approved of the quadrennial communist "one world" orgy that is the Olympics. Hundreds of sweaty young men (and women even!) live in unsupervised dorms, and I have it on good authority that there are NO BIBLES in the rooms! The Olympics promotes rabid internationalism, which is a fundamental doctrine of Karl Marx.

The whole thing makes me sick, and it usually takes place in foreign countries!

[Wide-Open]

Re: Consider the Olympics

And an orgy it is Pastor. Take gymnastics for women - or should I say: children. 10 year old cooters and prepubescent dirty pillows being broadcast to billions of TV sets, when they have to do a so called "split".

Same with artistic ice skating. You see a lot of body parts you simply don't want to see as a decent Christian family man.

Tennis: same thing. Have you ever heard the noises the ladies make?

OOOOAAAHHHH! GNNNAAAHHH! IAAAAWW!

Like some lesbian love ritual, with their underpants showing under those harlot dresses.

Makes me sick really.

[Danish....Scum?]

Re: Consider the Olympics

Best just call it an abomination of Satan himself