Olympics

Dang, I’ve accumulated quite a bit of material worth commenting on during the craziness of the past few weeks.   Some of the more interesting articles include:

• Redstate referenced an article in the Telegraph entitled “The Great Oil Bubble Has Burst”.  While Redstate seems inclined to play up the influence of off-shore drilling expectations in the recent rationalization of oil prices, the more complete story seems to be the free market coming back into balance.  Yes, the markets seem to reflect expectation of new supplies, and global economic slowing is shifting expectations of demand, and these shifts in turn seem to end the incentive to dance the contango. 
     
  However, I do notice that both articles also fail to touch on expectations of the US Dollar strengthening / Euro weakening impacting dollar-denominated oil futures contracts, as well as China presumably ending its massive stockpiling of diesel fuel for Olympics power-generation.

  It’ll be interesting to see where  the new oil/fuel price equilibrium emerges.  It’s a little odd that I’d ever be happy over gas and heating oil prices locally dropping below $3.90 – a year ago that would have been an unsettling price to think about.  Hopefully planners and venture capitalists will continue to see the market potential of alternative power sources (wind, solar, non-food-based-ethanol) enough to justify further development of such technology.
   

• You may have heard that the Olympics are on. NBC apparently racked up record ratings, which annoys me since it will only support that network’s practice of tainting the games (and its ceremonies) with inane, fluffy chatter.   You’d think that with the advent of digital multicasting, there would at least be some move to provide a commentator-less soundtrack, as well as additional coverage of some of the less-popular (but more interesting) sports.
   
• Tyson Foods drew some flack in Nashville media for one provision in its recently announced 5-year contract at a Shelbyville processing plant – workers will no longer receive Labor Day as a paid day off, instead picking up Eid al-Fitr, the end of the month of Ramadan.  The fuss seems to be focused around the appearance of sacrificing an American holiday for an Islamic one.  
   
  However, not much seems to be made of approximately 60% of staff at the plant being Somali (and presumably Muslim)…and that not much work would be done that day anyway.  It seems like a rather practical approach to maximize plant efficiency while being sensitive to workers’ wishes.   It’s similar to how even the most secular institutions in the U.S. observe Christmas Day.
   
• The Dems reportedly have reached the necessary compromises to draft a platform for the ’08 election season.  I’m hoping to have time to look through it more carefully later, but I can observe now that quickly searching for the word “insurance” and skimming through the results makes me feel oh-so-loved, and causes me to wonder if I should be searching for “bread and circus” as well.
   
• And finally, while I might feel unloved by the Dems due to my association with the “evil” insurance industry, I still can’t help but compliment the Obama camp for seemingly almost mastering the art of media hype.   The current example of this is was the invitation broadcast far and wide for a text message alert when Barack’s veep choice (presumably Bayh) is announced (presumably in the next day or two).

Whew!  And now, it’s time for me to head back into the salt mine….

This article at Bloomberg caught my eye:

China is pushing the price of diesel fuel higher by stockpiling it ahead of both the Summer Olympics and the need to rebuild Sichuan province after last week’s earthquake, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The country is hoarding the fuel in the event that its power grid fails and it needs to use backup generators, the Journal said.

Now, I don’t think anyone could fault a country for stepping up fuel acquisition in the wake of a disaster.  However, the article makes it sound like Chinese authorities are uncertain of their power grid’s ability to support the demands that the Olympics will make on local power resources.

Shouldn’t availability of power, preferably without need of falling back to more-polluting, backup sources, be a key criterion in site selection?

Also, aren’t the Olympics supposed to be a celebration of peaceful competition and cooperation, rather than a drag on the rest of the world?

A couple of thoughts that have been bouncing around my head, given how much news coverage there has recently been on the Olympic Torch and related pro-Tibet protests.

First, in the Olympic Torch relays I’ve been aware of (from ‘84 on), the torch has been portrayed as a symbol of the ideal of the world coming together in peace and good sportsmanship.

This year, for the first time, I’ve been hearing folks recall that the torch relay was originally developed as an element of Nazi propaganda associated with the ‘36 Olympics.

How come when the U.S., or Australia, or South Korea, or any other country hosts the Olympics, the torch relay is symbolic of peace, but when the PRC gets the Olympics, it’s a resurrection of Nazism?

Haven’t the pro-Tibet/pro-Darfur/anti-China protesters ever heard of Godwin’s Law?

Second, don’t I remember hearing China promise that these would be the Green Olympics?

Seen in Wired:

If people are looking for another reason to be pissed at China, how about this: By the time this pyro parade is over, it will have produced about 11 million pounds of carbon emissions.

While reading about the challenges the Olympic torch relay faced in Paris, a comment in the Washington Post caught my eye:

But the relay team struggled at a slow pace as it followed the banks of the Seine and looped back toward the Trocadero across the river from the Eiffel Tower, where pro-Tibet demonstrators pelted the torch bearer—a wheelchair-bound ping pong player—and his assistants with bottles of juice, fruit and other projectiles.

Um…while I agree that China’s policy towards Tibet (and many ethnic minorities, for that matter) is atrocious, and their implicit support for the Darfur massacres is heinous…dudes, is belting a wheelchair-bound torchbearer really the right way to get your message across?

Flying Tibetan flags, waving “Save Darfur” signs…those would be acceptable ways to get the message across, in the faint hope that the semi-openness Beijing is allegedly honoring for the Olympics permits the message to get through. Asking political leaders to take the PRC to task, or even campaigning to permit athletes to add Tibetan or Darfur-oriented flair to their uniforms…that would be fine too.

But throwing stuff at a wheelchair-bound torchbearer?! The only thing that will be effective in doing is arming China with material to show what rabble Tibetan supporters “really” are.