Too young to win a gold medal?

Ok, people really need to stop complaining that the Chinese gymnasts at the Olympics may or may not be younger than 16, and therefore should be reprimanded/disqualified/thrown in jail. Can anyone possibly come up with any sort of reasoning as to why being younger in gymnastics (or in any sport for that matter) is advantageous??? Well, people are trying:

"Age has a lot to do with what's level in gymnastic competitions. There is a mental advantage for youngsters who are clueless about pressure, unaware of what wobbles the burden to win can create."

This is coming from a writer for Sports Illustrated...seriously? I really don't think the Chinese girls are little balance beam-flipping-vaulting robots who are totally oblivious to what is going on. And apparently once a girl hits the age of 16, she is rendered ineffective by the pressures of competition?

I don't buy it. The bottom line is, the gymnasts from another country performed better than the gymnasts from our country. Period. Even if they happened to be "too young," they still beat us. I really just think Americans have a problem with losing.

Not that the rules should just be ignored. There is an age rule for a reason, and I'm sure its purpose is to keep underage girls from exposure to the rigors of competition (although maybe this is unnecessary, as they seem unaffected by the pressure? I'd like to hear SI's take on why the rule is in place). Furthermore, I am far from being in agreement with the way China approaches their gymnastics program, basically pushing young children through a sort of full-time "gymnastic boot camp" (from what I understand). However, it is far too late to take any sort of action in this instance. These girls qualified, competed, and won; it would be ridiculous to take away their accomplishment now. Rather, the IOC should be sure to take appropriate measures in the future to ensure that in the future this sort of issue does not detract from the amazing accomplishments of these athletes.

Pack them in

This...is just ridiculous. Personally I would wait for the next one...

The Ministry of Sunshine?

It seems government controlled weather is no longer a myth. According to this article, China is planning on ensuring that the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing will be rain free by shooting rockets into the sky to make it rain ahead of time. Apparently this is not a procedure limited to high-profile events, as I've heard that they do the same thing prior to big test days (everyone tests better with sunny skies outside, right!?) The Olympic thing seems innocuous enough, but coupled with the test day thing it all seems rather Orwellian (Beijing even has a "Weather Modification Office"!). I suppose there is no harm in nice weather, but a government taking measures to subliminally influence the actions of its citizens seems a mighty slippery slope down which to travel.

Shout out from NYC

So I'm here in New York visiting my sister, and as always I'm struck by how completely different New York (well at least Manhattan) is from most everywhere else. As a "city" it puts even Chicago to shame, not to mention places like little old Whitney Point where I grew up. Living somewhere like NY is a completely different experience from living in a town of about 1,000 people, and its amazing to me that such a range of experiences can be found on the same planet, let alone in the same state (of course if one were to look internationally you could find far greater gaps in size/prosperity that would lead to even more different experiences). And even though we are all biologically the same human species, we are in many ways completely different beings because of our surroundings and experiences. Maybe this gives credence to the cliche that you can take the person out of the city/small town, but you can't take the city/small town out of the person.

lol@TSA

Oh TSA how you make me laugh. So I was perusing their website today to get the latest on what I can and cannot put in my carry-on for an upcoming flight...take a look at the list.
WTF! Note that this falls under the heading of "Makeup, Medication, Personal Items & Special Needs Devices." They really need to add "robots" to that in order to prevent confusion, or perhaps create a separate section of "Sentient Beings." Just to be explicitly clear, they have indicated that the robots must be toys and not actually full fledged transformers (sorry Optimus Prime, looks like you'll need to ship yourself next time you want to take a Hawaiian getaway). My concern is that there may be robots simply posing as toys, only to reveal their deadly nature once on board. The last thing we need are laserbeams and buzzsaws flying through the cabin as full-fledged robot warfare breaks out 35,000 ft over the Atlantic.

(Those wishing to verify whether their My Little Pony doll is airworthy can click here to check out the list for themselves).

China (again!) and air pollution

Continuing with this whole China and Olympics thing (and why not!), a lot is being said on the air quality in China and how this will affect athletic performance. I've seen everything from athletes petitioning the IOC to be allowed to use potentially performance enhancing inhalers (only in this case just so they can actually breathe, if you call that performance enhancing) to discussions on each country's specific (and top-secret) strategies for combating the effects of polluted air (apparently the U.S. team is planning on wearing masks 24/7 when not in competition - not kidding). Well, there is not much to say about this other than yes, the air is likely to be very dirty, and yes, this will likely cause trouble for the participants. The only question is how much of a relations issue will the measures taken become!

This does however raise the issue of the effect China is having on the environment as it rapidly industrializes. Surely, we must do something to make them understand that what they are doing is wrong! But was it any less wrong for the United States and Western Europe during the 1800s? The difference is that during the Industrial Revolution polluting was the "modern" thing to do. Well guess what - China is playing catchup. The new modern thing is to be environmentally aware, but this is a luxury that is only affordable by those who have already done their fare share of eco-trashing. For us to demand that they cease and desist is hypocritical at best.

That doesn't mean there is nothing that can be done. However, any inducement made to alter China's behavior must be positive and not negative, carrots not sticks. We should approach the issue accepting that China has the "right" to pollute, and think about what we can do to entice them into giving up that right. One way is by treating the right to pollute as a commodity, and simply "buying" that right from the Chinese. It all depends on how much we value a world with less pollution, because there must be some price which equals the benefit received by China from actions which pollute, and by compensating accordingly we can alter their "consumption of pollution." And after all, who really wants to eat that stuff anyway.

P.S. on Tibet (and cool Olympic venues!)

Just to follow up on the last, I heard an interesting argument a while ago at a talk on "China" (broad topic right) here at the law school. Someone asked why China seems to "care so much" about territories such as Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau, and even Taiwan. In short, one of the speakers suggested that the nature of these and other territories in China are so tenuous that were the government to give the smallest concession to recognizing their independence, the floodgates would open and the hold on all such territories would be lost. He went on to say that "maybe China isn't really a country." It sounds ridiculous, but he compared it to the former Yugoslavia as an umbrella entity that is holding together distinct smaller countries in nothing but name, and were it to be removed the countries would quickly break apart. It really begs the question "what defines a country." I think there are a whole lot of ways to answer that, and I have no idea if the comparison of China to Yugoslavia is valid, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Oh and as I promised...cool Olympic venues! Say what you will about the Beijing Olympics, you have to agree that they have style. I think that many of these buildings are at the top of my list of "coolest buildings I have ever seen in my life, I would never have dreamt up in a million years, and in some cases don't even understand how they can possibly exist," but my two favorites by far are the Bird's Nest and the Cube. I want to go to China to see the Olympics!!!