So is super star Athlete Liu Xiang like the Greek Warrior Achilles, invincible but for his heel, his only weakness that would make him fall?

What an incredible PR bonanza, isn’t this a lot better than racing and ensuring multi millions of dollars of endorsement! Like everybody else I was looking forward to the hurdles, but not only was it disappointing, it was impossible to believe! If he was already in pain prior to the race, why did he even bother to try, he cannot use drugs to dull out the pain.

I am not the only one who is suspicious and the forums are lively on debate on this topic.

The conspiracy saga rages on from Corporate intent (Nike is involved) to just personal failure. Somehow, I hope I never find out because it would be too much to bear for a Nation who has had its biggest glory moment. Liu Xiang statistically did not have much of a chance to win Gold, infact some question if he would even qualify! The Nike argument comes largely because of the profit share that is made between Athlete, Coach and the association and Liu Xiang is certainly a gravy train right now in sponsorship. Now that he will be likened with Achilles, it may look even better, or so it might be hoped.

As quoted:

What a day! Even if it won’t last for that long…China leads not only in Gold medals by a stretch, but also it leads the total tally of medals ahead of the United States!

If there is ever a chance that China could beat the US as the country with the most decorated athletes, this is the one on home ground! Unfortunately for China, the US in their last olympics went home with 102 medals, 36 of them gold vs. China with 32 gold but only 63 overall medals. The surprise is that this year Russia looks like it is no longer as a Federation, so its medal count evaporated from pervious years.

Beijing 2008, the time China has been waiting for!

After seven years of preparation, billions of dollars of investment, and a mammoth effort to clean up Beijing’s polluted skies, Chinese Olympics officials say they are staging one of the greatest Olympics ever.

The 29th summer games began at 8:08pm Beijing time on Friday – an auspicious time and date in Chinese culture which regards the number eight as lucky.

Details of the opening ceremony had been kept a closely guarded secret, but producers had promised a show that will "amaze the world".

"We have prepared for the Beijing Olympics for seven years and now we are ready … we are very confident indeed that we will stage a successful Olympics," Sun Weide, spokesman for the organising committee, told reporters.
"Of course we hope that these will be a great games, even the greatest."

The day also saw thousands of Chinese couples getting married on one of the most auspicious dates in several years – 08/08/08.

"This day is very meaningful for us because finally the Olympics are here," groom Peng Zhonghua, 23, told Al Jazeera as he signed his wedding vows with his smiling bride at a central Beijing marriage bureau.

The couple said that like many Chinese they planned to spend the evening at home with their families watching the opening ceremony.

Authorities have urged Beijingers without one of the 91,000 tickets to the opening ceremony to watch it at home, rather than try to travel to the Olympic green in the north of the city.

In an effort to avoid congestion, officials announced earlier this week that Friday would be a public holiday.

Hong Kong star Andy Lau waves to fans as he arrives at Beijing Capital Airport on August 5, 2008. The capital airport has become a destination for star-chasers as celebrities arrive one after another to watch or volunteer for the Olympics. Monday alone saw the arrival of more than a dozen Hong Kong stars, 163.com reported

and below some Olympic coke bottle art in Beijing too!

so I got to admit that as a fan of all things cute and Hello Kitty, the whole Hello Kitty Online thing flew by me the first time round, and then I sort of looked on at the sideline as everyone was raving about it. It didn’t stop just during the closed beta, it kept going and going and going.

First off, I am a fan of this, really! But for those of you who remember we heard news about this up and coming game for so long, I was not even sure it was real! And now I missed that first big beta! I will be there the next time and will take it seriously!

Kung Fu film star Jackie Chan Monday admitted that he acted in a porn movie 31 years ago, responding to a report revealed by Hong Kong media, Information Times reported Tuesday.

"I had to do anything I could to make a living 31 years ago, but I don’t think it’s a big deal, even Marlon Brando used to be exposed in his movies," Chan said. "The porn movie at that time was more conservative than the current films," he said.

Hong Kong netizens tipped local media that Chan was in the porn movie "All in the Family" in 1975, with a porn movie star who was famous at that time.

The Hong Kong made movie, directed by Zhu Mu, was defined as a comedy. Dean Shek, Tien Chun, and Sammo Hung were also co-stars.

Photo: ifensi.com

If you’ve ever watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, you’ll find this one particularly weird and funny. I am not sure if I am able to eat out of a plate like this, but they’ve got the spear of longinus as an eating utensil, very interesting.

As compared to the anime below there is some likeness….I think he’s called “Adam”, personally I’d be sort of weirded out eating on a plate like this, well made though ^_^

The true story of a female lion reunited with their human foster parents after a few years. Christian is the name of a pet lion bought from the famous Harrods department store in London in 1969. After about a year with his owners the lion had grown too big to remain with them. After a chance encounter with the stars of the film Born Free, the owners handed the pet lion over to the "Lion Man", conservationist George Adamson in order to be rehabilitated into the wild in Kora National Reserve, Kenya. A movie was made documenting the translocation from England to Kenya. In this footage, a year has passed and it looks like this pet lion has adapted to living with a pride of lions when his old friends come back to visit him.

More on wikipedia.

The folks at Sanrio are hosting an incredible event in Hong Kong called Hello Kitty Black Wonder which is also advertised here in Sanriotown.

The general mission is to rescue Hello Kitty and Daniel in a series of clues and games that herald a little bit of Alternate Reality Gaming. It is actually like a theme park really but in a gothic, dark sort of halloween way.

The video above I got from Sanriotown, some slideshows of the event.

The Graphics and design is funky, some pictures from Apple Daily.

Here’s poor Daniel in Jail, you have to go rescue him! Looks sort of cowboy western like.

Special items are also on sale and looks like they are selling quickly!

It’s not a store. It’s a resort styled along Hello Kitty style inside and outside (although why is one of the houses green?)

The interior is surprisingly stylish, not as silly pink as I would have expected.

This is another view of the place. Pretty funky, I wonder if they will have something like this elsewhere.