Magnificent Two Weeks Over

It’s over. After seventeen days we have seen the completion of the 29^th Olympiad in Beijing, China.

Many people asked me why I didn’t post to my blog during that time. Everyone that reads here knows how much I enjoy the Olympics and know that it’s a big part of my research. And I have a very good reason why I did not post to my blog during that time.

I was actually watching the Olympics.

I had my TiVo working overtime. In addition to the content analyses that I’m working on based on NBC’s prime time coverage I was working toward updating my library of sports clips for future experiments. My goal was to get a little bit of every sport, and if possible getting clips of both male and female athletes competing in each. Some days I had my TiVo recording as much as 31 hours of coverage from the NBC family of networks: MSNBC, CNBC, USA, and Oxygen.

I figure that my TiVo over those 17 days recorded nearly 400 hours of Olympics. And while I watched a good chunk, I also fast forwarded through a lot of it. My goal in finding the sports for my collection were to have competitions that did not feature American athletes. If used in an experiment I wanted participants to feel as neutral as possible about the participants – I don’t want a feeling of patriotism and national pride to overtake any possible effects I would be researching.

Overall, I think I was relatively successful in my task. There were three sports that were not broadcast at all on any of the networks carrying the Olympics: judo, sailing, and taekwondo. Also, the networks did not broadcast men participating in the modern pentathlon – though they did broadcast the women’s competition. And then of what was supposed to be broadcast I did not get footage of women’s archery, women’s pairs in whitewater canoeing/kayaking, and men’s triathlon. I do not believe that, even though they were in the broadcast schedule, that the first two actually made it to air. And when it comes to the triathlon it was a victim of a choice I made – I chose to record the network that was airing men’s trampoline instead.

It was a great Games with many memorable moments. I can’t wait for February 12, 2010 for the upcoming Winter Games in Vancouver and for July 27, 2012 when the Summer Olympics will return in London.

7 Days Until the Opening Ceremony - Let the Coding Begin

Seven days from today marks the Opening Ceremonies of the 29th Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.

It also marks the start of my biennial Olympic content analysis.

I am actually looking forward to both. I love the grandeur of the Games, and the content analysis forces me to watch every second of the prime time coverage. I can't wait.

Picture It, Hollywood, 2008

I make so secret my affection for one of the funniest comedies of the 1980s – The Golden Girls. The dynamic between the four women in the cast is unmatched.

Yesterday the youngest Golden Girl, though she played the oldest, died. Estelle Getty, who played Sophia Petrillo, died at age 84 after suffering for the past few years with dementia.

Sophia was known for her stinging comments about her daughter Dorothy, played by actress Bea Arthur, her fear of returning to Shady Pines, a retirement home, and her stories filled with wisdom and advice. Sophia’s stories always started with “Picture it” followed by a place and a year. Some of the funniest moments came from these stories. Getty also received seven Emmy award nominations and one win for her playing of Sophia.

Getty will be sorely missed, and hopefully the Golden Girls will live on forever in syndication. Here’s a YouTube video featuring clips of Getty as Sophia, but is only a small fraction of the great work she did on the series.

Political Humor

JibJab is at it again. They have put out a very good video about campaigning for the upcoming presidential election. It is very clever and I just felt the need to share it.

Women in Sports This Weekend

This has been a great weekend for women in sports. I want to touch on two of the biggest stories of the weekend.

First we have Venus Williams defeating her sister Serena to win Wimbledon yesterday. The sisters have been criticized in the past for not playing their hardest when playing each other. That could not be said about yesterday's match. Both women played their hardest, and Venus won in two sets.


Then we have Dara Torres. Torres is a U.S. swimmer who this weekend qualified for the team to compete at this summer's Olympics in Beijing in the 100-meter freestyle event. Torres may also qualify for other events today. This is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, this is Torres' fifth Olympic Games. And she is 41 years old. During the 2000 Games in Sydney she was the oldest member of the U.S. swim team. There's no doubt that she will be again this year. And it should be noted that Torres won her first Olympic medal during the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, which to put into perspective was before current swimming phenom Michael Phelps was even born.


Congratulations to both these athletes!

Reaching Young Voters

Here is an interesting video recently posted to YouTube and other websites by TruthThroughAction.org.

Definitely a humorous video whose goal is to reach voters from approximately the 18-25 age demographic. The video is appropriately titled Blue Balled. I know I enjoyed it and just had to share it.