Some links..

I've been catching up with Google reader tonight.

:: Another piece about adjusting medal tallies. [via The Guardian]

:: Punditry .. or prayer [via The Guardian]

:: Fallen Stars.. [via the NYT]

:: Obama accepts the Demorcatic nomination [via the NYT]

Alternative Olympic Medal Tallies

So, heres' the current 2008 Olympic Medal Tally (via SMH). Interesting note that New York Times Medal table list countries by medal's won.

I'm quite interested in the adjusted medal tables. Here's two alternative tallies:

:: via Andrew Starr which ranks according to the number of medals won per 10 million of population.

:: the second, ranks by points (Gold = 3, Silver = 2, Bronze = 1) divided by Population (in millions)

I'm keen to see one adjusted by GDP (or by average per cent of GDP spent on sport). Here's the final GDP-Adjusted table from Athens 2004.

Olympics..

I watched a little bit of the Olympics (I've probably read more than I've seen), but I quite liked these pieces from the mainland (c/o the NZ Herald).

:: If all else fails, join Australia - this one was published last week, before NZ had won any medals.

:: Whatever happened to winner-take-all?

:: And as you can see, TV coverage is the same the world over ;-)

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How to know your a tragic...

... when you see something like the below, and go wow~! this sounds cool.

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U2: The Hype and The Feedback (May 13-15, 2009) is the first conference to examine U2's considerable catalog of music as well as their influence in the areas of the music and entertainment industry, popular culture, humanitarian relief and the global politics of peace and social justice.
We invite proposals for papers, presentations or panels on any topic relating to the music, work or influence of U2 that would appeal to an audience of scholars, students, journalists, musicians and intellectually curious U2 fans.
We encourage proposals from established or independent scholars; faculty, graduate or undergraduate students; journalists, critics, musicians and fans.
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I'll be keeping tabs on this for sure.. not that I could go though.