Month: February 2002

the big news is the prospect of bringing the Summer Olympics to the Frisco Bay area in 2012 (Bay Area bid for Games gets boost) “SALT LAKE CITY – The beauty and the success of the 2002 Winter Olympics could propel San Francisco’s campaign to bring the Summer Games to the Bay Area in 10 years.”

I would hope that the Bay Area Games would include some new demonstation sports that highlight local culture, such as, well, Demonstrating for Lost Causes, where the medal would go to the group with the cause most reflective of unreconstructed 60s values. Or Ordering Chinese and Then Eating it with Chopsticks, even if the main course is rice (something an East Asian wouldn’t do, actually). Or Driving Too Slow on the Freeways, something we do better than anybody in the world. Looking down our Noses at Iowa would be fiercely competitive, and engaging to the Europeans. But nothing would better highlight the essence of the Valley than the Mad Dash for Cash with a Startup, unless it’s Moral Sanctimony without any Discernable Morals, or the Green Card Race.

Silicon Valley and the Frisco Bay Area generally have so much to share with the world.

about curling stones is found on JohnEllis.

— This puts some of this mania in perspective (Korea Herald Infotech):

According to Yahoo! Korea, Korean Internet users are crowding message boards and breaking Web traffic records. Its Kim Dong-sung message board surpassed the daily page view figure of 10 million.

Yahoo! said the popularity of the Kim Dong-sung message board is unprecedented. Even the message board about the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. stopped short of 3 million daily page views, it said.

That’s OK, we’ve got Andrew Sullivan and Instapundit.

— From Korea Herald National:

[Jay Leno] said the Korean player must have been angry enough to have kicked and eaten a dog when he returned home.

Leno’s remarks were broadcast on SBS, one of South Korea’s major TV network, on Saturday, and immediately prompted angry reactions from South Korean’s viewers.

But they do eat dog:

A group of 100 dogmeat restaurant owners will set up a nationwide federation next Monday in a city on the outskirts of Seoul to outline plans to promote the meat to foreign tourists before and during the World Cup period.

So where’s the beef?

— Curling is taking-off in the land of the cube rats (New fans get swept up in curling):

Forget figure skating, snowboarding and moguls. From coast to coast, young and not so young are suddenly clamoring to learn about curling — not hair, but stones.

There may be hope for this stinky place after all.

— A prediction: the Athens Olympics in 2004 will be a total disaster. The Mrs. and I visited Greece last October, and just getting around Athens is a major nightmare. The Grecians are trying to upgrade their Metro, but they’re way behind schedule. Similarly, all the upgrades and construction to the venues are behind, and the IOC has admonished the Grecians on several occasions to get their act together. The Games will have to be scaled-back considerably if they’re to take place at all. Modern Greece doesn’t know how to get things done. The Parthenon was built in 30 years with hand tools, but 30 years of renovations with high-tech equipment have succeeded only in keeping it from crumbling, not in restoring it to its former glory.

That being said, Greece is a fun place if you don’t have much to do. While most of it’s falling down, the locals still know how to have a good time, especially if there’s a bunch of drunken Japanese tourists to be entertained.