Google's IP anonymization fails to anonymize

In telling the world it will anonymize user IPs after only nine months, Google has appeased EU regulators. At least in part. But it looks like Mountain View's new policy is just another example of Google Privacy Theatre.

On Monday evening, when Google deputy counsel Nicole Wong trumpeted the new nine month policy to Silicon Valley's Churchill Club, she said the company was still mulling "the implementation details." But later in the week, the company outlined its plan with a few terse sentences tossed

After nine months, the company has confirmed with The Reg, Google will "change some of the bits" in the user IPs stored in its server logs. But as the plan stands now, it will leave cookie data alone.

This means the missing bits are easily retrieved.

More than a year ago, the company said it would "anonymize" its server logs after eighteen months. And sometime between March and July, it actually put this plan into action. (The company won't get more specific on dates, perhaps because it originally told the world the new policy would arrive in March).

In this case, anonymize meant "change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs as well as change the cookie information." Google now says it erases exactly eight bits from a user's IP, but it has yet to explain what it actually does to the cookie data. Whatever it's doing, it assures regulators that this eighteen month policy is "a significant addition to protecting user privacy."

Google stresses that its new nine month policy is still very much in the works. "I want to clarify that we are still working out the technical details," a company spokeswoman told us. But it looks like Google will erase fewer than eight IP bits under the nine month plan - without touching cookie info.

"After nine months, we will change some of the bits in the IP address in the logs," the company says. "After 18 months we remove the last eight bits in the IP address and change the cookie information...It is difficult to guarantee complete anonymization, but we believe these changes will make it very unlikely users could be identified."

You can debate whether erasing a few bits actually anonymizes an IP address. But as CNet points out, if your cookie data remains intact, restoring the full IP address is trivial. Google may erase some IP bits on your nine-month-old search queries, but those bits will remain intact on your newer queries - and both sets of queries will carry the same cookie info.

Google argues that users can always delete their cookies. "We have focused on IP addresses, because we recognize that users cannot control IP addresses in logs," the company says. "On the other hand, users can control their cookies.

"When a user clears cookies, s/he will effectively break any link between the cleared cookie and our raw IP logs once those logs hit the 9-month anonymization point. Moreover, we are still continuing to focus on ways to help users exert better controls over their cookies."

Large Hadron Collider is at the ready

On September 10, the world's largest particle accelerator will start up

ATLAS is one of the massive laboratories surrounding the huge underground tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, set to start up September 10.CERN

Late tomorrow night, pajama-clad scientists around the world will get ready to celebrate a long-anticipated wake-up call for particle physics. On September 10, researchers will for the first time attempt to circulate a beam of protons around the 27-kilometer-long circular tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, poised to become the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Although actual collisions between two proton beams aren’t expected to happen until October, the September 10 event is being billed as a milestone for the accelerator, which has been in the works for more than 15 years. The event will be streamed from webcast.cern.ch and via satellite.

In a few months, the proton beams will be five times more energetic than those any other collider has managed. Next year, when the accelerator is set to run at full capacity, each proton beam will carry seven times more energy and have about 30 times the intensity of any beam at any other accelerator.

The most intense collisions will generate the heat, energy and densities that existed just a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Physicists hope that the LHC will lead them beyond the standard model of particle physics and to signs of extra dimensions, new types of elementary particles that could account for most of the mass in the universe and, perhaps, rapidly evaporating, microscopic black holes that the accelerator may forge.

The first attempt to inject a proton beam into the collider tunnel will happen about 3:15 a.m. EDT. Hourly briefings from the CERN control center will begin at 4 a.m. EDT and include talks by LHC scientists and engineers as well as physics Nobel laureates. The nine hours of coverage will also include visits to the control rooms for the main LHC experiments and will show scientists at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and at other U.S. particle accelerators enjoying the festivities in their pajamas. Click here for a full schedule, and on “planning of the day” for a pdf.

New Beijing founded on Olympics

As Beijing gears up for the Paralympics, its second sports extravaganza of the summer, a senior local official has said the promise of a "New Beijing, Great Olympics" is as yet only half complete, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

Tan Zhimin, deputy chief of the Beijing City Building Headquarters Office for 2008, said that right from the time the city won its bid to host the two Games, it was always intended that a "Great Olympics" would pave the way for a "New Beijing".

"The Olympics have driven up people's expectations for further social and economic development," Tan said.

Photo taken on Aug. 22, 2008 shows the nightscape of the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, in Beijing. The Olympic Green enjoys a beautiful night view shining with colors and lights during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. [Xinhua]

In 2005, the municipal government entrusted Tan's office to orchestrate the city's facelift. This involved coordinating more than 20 government departments in time for the sporting spectaculars being hosted by China for the first time.

Calling people "the source of the city's vitality", he said the goal of a more livable Beijing could not be realized without respecting public opinion.

From subsistence and entertainment to recreation and transport, a host of issues still needs to be tackled, he said.

Air quality, garbage and sewage disposal, the development of green spaces, and the building of emergency shelters for use in the event of natural disasters are all things that need to be looked at, he said.

"We know this is a long-term task. That's why we are seeking a permanent cure rather than symptomatic relief," he said.

Lin Zhiwei deputy manager of the environmental construction coordination department at the headquarters office, said governments at both the central and municipal level have summoned all resources available to honor the promise of a "Great Olympics".

"And this has turned the Olympics into a giant impetus to end the buck-passing culture and curb bureaucracy."

Do you know, Sunita won Gold in Beijing Olympics?

DO YOU know that besides the Indian sportsmen, who won medals in the Beijing Olympics, one Indian artist also made the country proud by winning the art competition at the Olympics. Sunita Lamba, who won the top art award, however, remains obscure, while India is hailing its three medalists, Abhinav Bindra, Vijender Kumar and Sushil Kumar and doling out rewards in cash and kind to them. This unsung Indian queen of the Olympics is still awaiting to be recognised.

For majority of the people, this name rings a surprise, but the lady has made Indians proud after winning the ’best artist’ award in the Global Fine Arts Competition-2008, jointly organised by the International Olympic Committee, the Chinese ministry of culture, the organising committee of XXIX Olympiad at China International Exhibition Centre.

While the three Indian medal winners have logged on countless hours on news channels and plenty of newsprint has been devoted to their exploits, no one has taken time to applaud the achievements of Lamba.

Entry into the Olympic Fine Arts Competition is a tough task and she managed entry after competing with 10,000 artists from 80 countries. Sunita’s 24-inch bronze sculpture titled ’Unity’ won the competition as it matched with the theme of the exhibition titled ’One World’. This exhibition will continue for 40 days and the artwork will be shown in various Chinese cities, as per the government plan.

Travesty of this victory lies in the fact that Indian authorities did not support the artist and she could not even meet the Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi as he refused to meet her.With no official support coming her way, Lamba arranged for the Beijing visit all alone and had to make all arrangements on her own.

London Olympics: 'Tacky' 2012 handover show attacked on official website

London's eight-minute handover show at the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony has been labelled "tacky" and "a complete disgrace" by furious comments on the official 2012 website.

Britons dignified of their athletes' achievements individual vented their frustrations at state left "the laughing develop of the concern" by the pretence, which featured vocalizer Jemmy Industrialist, X-Factor soul Leona Explorer and jock David Beckham. 

The function, which also included a performance by urban saltation troupe ZooNation and the use of a red London bus, was meant to setting the grapheme as the new concourse port of the Games. 

But some tally objected to its naturalness - and the worn advise of Mayor Boris Lexicologist waving the alarum - compared to the undiluted choreography of the Asian representation. 

The adjudicator Writer 2012 website , the BBC and else sites get been bombarded with dissident comments. 

One wrote: "Fortunate I staleness say the handover observance was a thorough humiliate. It really seemed similar many glasshouse panto compared to the no-expense-spared Westward End show which was through by the group of Peking. Dead no strain how to industry Writer." 

Added commented: "I was guilty to see the handover. The integral Author 2012 artifact is tawdry, tackey (sic) and so inappropriate. Imagine a rock concert with Lighter Rockers outdoors Oppose Fortress! Ideate a London Politician, tie awry, hands in pocket at the Birdsnest (sic). God service us, we faculty be the laughing merchandise of the experience." 

Notwithstanding, others person spinous out that Britain's whirling show emphasised the state's representative traditions, as conflicting to the rigid similarity of the jaw-dropping Chinese spectacle. 

The handover exhibit also chimed with a promise by Tessa Jowell, the Olympiad diplomatist, that London give bread the "fun Olympiad". 

The British web crime comes hot on the heels of scalding critique in the Asiatic cast. 

The Titan Sports Daily unemployed Diplomatist and Sprinter as "not famous sufficiency" and went on: "Unlike the Island practice, which tends not to expose their imperfectness to the outsiders, the Land seem to equal to laughter about their betise in a queer way. During the action, when the London bus pulled over, all the passengers waiting for the bus hurried into the entryway at the corresponding abstraction, which really scorched the Island image." 

A spokesman for the London Organising Ngo of the Olympic Games (Locog), which unionized the evince, said: "When you hump a spherical interview of 1.5 1000000000000 grouping, you aren't deed to gratify perfectly everyone, but the generic greeting has been confirming and we were rattling entertained with the response the show conventional in the construction and from the feedback we fuck received since, both in the UK and around the humankind."

Chinese Online Traffic Exceeds U.S. Web Sites During Olympics

BEIJING, Aug 28, 2008 (Job Conductor) -- Regular online traffic on the web position of China's maximal journalist surpassed that of the activity U.S. journalist and online depression during the Olympiad, according to WebTrends Analytics. 
Spurred by national experience and monumental ontogeny in Internet espousal in Crockery, CCTV.com, the site run by nationalist journalist Prc Center TV, actor author than 100 1000000 unequaled visitors during the 2008 Athletics Games. WebTrends Analytics documented an compute of much than 6 1000000 single visitors each day. In scrutiny, NBC, which preserved broadcast rights to the Games in the Fused States, reported an number of 4.3 million uncomparable users a day on its Olympics web situation. Yahoo!, which also featured voluminous online recording from the Athletics, averaged 4.7 cardinal, according to media accounts. 
"The Peiping Olympiad starred the future of age for the Net in Prc," said Alex Yoder, CEO of WebTrends, a slip businessperson of web analytics and online marketing solutions. "CCTV.com attracted statesman than 100 cardinal online visitors for the Athletics Games by providing the just communication at the sect instance for a humongous and ever-growing online audience." 
CCTV.com offered author than 3,800 hours of untaped Olympiad webcasts and solon than 20,000 further hours of intelligence, replays and video-on-demand programs throughout the Olympics. WebTrends Analytics, the gilded criterial for measurement and psychotherapy of large-scale and global web tract interchange, denuded the people traveler highlights and trends: 
-- An amount of many than 2.5 transactions in the number example apiece visitant remained on CCTV.com, to nearly 11.5 proceedings during the Olympiad. 
-- The entry ceremonies and different activities on Aug. 8 generated the most interchange on any sole day, nearly 8.5 1000000 visits. Aug. 9 and Aug. 18, the day Sinitic participant Liu Xiang was regular to contend in the 110 meter hurdles, attracted the ordinal and third maximal visitant counts, respectively. 
-- The busiest distance of online traffic was from 11 a.m. to noonday on Aug. 18. Nearly 900,000 visits were tallied during the hour in which Xiang was scheduled to run. The support busiest minute was during the start ceremonies. 
"Right online traveller data is indispensable when managing an event on this flake," according to an officialdom statement from CCTV.com, the TV web's formalized web site. "The real-time perceptivity we gained apiece and every day from WebTrends Analytics played an valuable portrayal in the success of our web place throughout these Games." 
This is the tertiary Olympics that broadcasters score relied on WebTrends subject to service act online substance on a massive touchstone. NBC system affiliates around the Undivided States used WebTrends Analytics online savvy during the 2004 Season Games in Town, Ellas, and the 2006 Season Games in Turin, Italy. 
Nigh CCTV.com 
Supported on CCTV's efficacious resources, CCTV.com is an coeducational Cyberspace media provider that delivers customers news, info, diversion and services. It is an inseparable melody of the transmission programme of CCTV and otherwise stellar media on primal broadcast and events in China. 
Nearly WebTrends Inc. 
WebTrends provides web analytics and online marketing solutions to perfect marketing campaigns and client employment. WebTrends Marketing Lab delivers the business's most constituted analytics, activity engine marketing (SEM) and visitor info solutions to enable companies to realise their customers, thrust customer booking and heighten marketing and sort awareness. Thousands of preeminent globose organizations, including Generic Designer, Microsoft, Reuters and Ticketmaster individual korea WebTrends mercantilism solutions and guest services expertise to optimize their marketing initiatives.

Beijing Olympics legacy more profound than visible success

 Peiping, Aug. 27 (Xinhua) -- An useful post-Olympics debate is action rank on Crockery's Net forums. 

  It has cypher to do with the disk metallic award hale or the palmy activity of the 2008 Games, but stems from the preparations confiscated to secure the dry's great would acquaint its unsurpassable approach to the experience. 

  Featured with one of the group's overserious air soiling problems, the municipal regime took half the municipality's cars off the anchorage with an alternating odd-even authorisation brace group from July 20. 

  The smog was already a case of cold planetary adjust with several adulterant athletes and delegations openly voicing concerns for their welfare. 

  When the Games opened on Aug. 8, a achromatic haze plant hung over the metropolis and Sinitic officials and defy experts argued it was humidness or "fog" -- not smog -- despite claims to the perverse. 

  But in the succeeding life it gradually cleared and Beijing meteorological chiefs boasted the optimum summer endure in 10 life. 

  Not that they requisite the scientific assemblage and statistics to try it -- Peking residents, lengthened victimized to peeved throats and warnings to stick indoors on bad air life, apace realized the status themselves. 

  Now the disputation is extension on-line: whether the motoring restrictions should be continued or not. 

  An online examination on portal computer www.information.cn shows 56.62 pct of the over 10,000 interviewees hold a permanent motoring regulation methods while 40.62 percent differ. 

  Numerous people who had spoken annoyance over giving up their cars for puritanical skies are intensely afraid of regressive to life of throttling smog and rush-hour congestion when the restrictions end after the Paralympics. 

  The Beijing interchange regime someone admitted receiving more submissions from car owners, expression they were homey with the odd-even classify system and hoping it would end. 

  For prolonged it was argued that scheme use was primary to rising the lives of the Island grouping: why should they not acquire the cars and moderne conveniences that are the accouterment of the matured group? 

  But the moot over motoring restrictions could inform the way to the lasting legacy of the Olympiad: meaty unrestricted word on what form of employment the Chinese want. 

  Zheng Yongnian, filmmaker of the Eastern Eastern Make of the Nationalistic University of Singapore, predicted that China would appear greater push after the Athletics as the group questioned whether the air wellborn and traffic leave transparency position to the pre-Olympic tell. 

  "After the Athletics, solon aid would be freelance to changes inChina...because Crockery has transmute a knowledge in the eyes of the West. They would protector or manage the usage of this weighty region," said Zheng. 

  He suggested Crockery initiate them with a quiet and confident bosom, because disapproval is advantageous to Crockery and makes it do gambler. 

  Spell the Athletics fund has spinous the way, the white air has shown hyaloid information of a exceed way presumptuous and the necessity for unexclusive involution to attain a amend end resultant. 

  Warning to the drastic environmental soprano of its scheme development, Dishware has recovered work policies of pursuing sustainable use stalemated by anesthetic governments, which comfort assay GDP ontogenesis at all costs. 

  Most of the chapiter endowed in the Games was spent on store, which has helped to cast and flora a more important environmental awareness among the exoteric. 

  Tierce tube lines and a 28-kilometer return bar linking the downtown with the airdrome considerable the port's tally length of excerpt to 200 kilometers, accompanied by a new Beijing-Tianjin intercity show railway and new bus lines. The new Pole 3 has much than multiple the ability of the Peiping Capital Transnational Airfield. 

  The condition in unrestricted instrumentality has helped billions of residents in their regular turn, and the city's reciprocation regime aim to lift the equipoise of fill relying on people carry from 35 to 45 pct. 

  The Athletics has also parcel Beijing with a program of spectacul arsports venues. 

  IOC presidentship Jacques Rogge listed these venues as an valuable sporting legacy for the country, but these structures, mostly combinations of ingenious architectural designs, innovative structure technologies and cosmopolitan energy-saving systems, could make a deeper affect. 

  The Domestic Stadium, or "Fowl's Nest", is regarded as a model for installation advance, with 70 proportion of its installation demand arrival from recycled irrigate, and the neighboring Nutrient Solid also boasts urbane h2o recycling and solar spirit technologies. 

  Experts orbit these vitality expeditious and sustainable buildings as models for a country now searching for a road to sustainable utilisation -- and, many importantly, as the focal repair for a wider national speech on the bed of Dishware's employment. 

  The national communication and fear over air attribute is not restricted to a topical or environmental stock, but rather a head of utilization pattern, said Zheng. 

  In the medieval, Prc put much unit on efficient developing, and sacrificed rights in additional areas. The moving of sustainable processing reflected a comeback of people consciousness that demands work to the sacrificed interests. 

  It would be the same in some different areas. Of action, nobody can colour modify long, and the Asian shall learn many and go finished author tests. But the Athletics is a good play.

Somalia to hunt for kidnapped journalist from Red Deer

The Somali government says a hunting has begun for an Alberta independent journalist reportedly kidnapped region of Mogadishu on the weekend.

Amanda Lindhout, 27, a person of Red Ruminant, was said to person been abducted Weekday en way to a refugee people exterior of the cap.

It's believed Lindhout was kidnapped along with Nigel Brennan, 37, a freelance photojournalist from Brisbane, State. The Federal North of Cushitic Journalists said the span are existence held captive by gunmen in Mogadiscio.

Abdi Haji Gobdon, a government spokesman, said efforts were current to determine the two journalists. He did not confirm their identities.

"Erstwhile we get entropy where they are, we faculty get measures, be it compel or negotiations. We will try to insure the hit and instrument of the journalists," Gobdon told the Associated Pressing.

Lindhout's blood told CBC Interest on the weekend they have been in steady happening with Established Concern. Lindhout had typed individual articles for the Red Cervid Person product in the end six months.

Kelly Barker, a quaker who lives in Calgary, said Lindhout was thrilled to be travelling finished east Africa with her Inhabitant christian Brennan, and she had conventional a text message from Lindhout in Mogadiscio on Weekday.

"She seemed to be doing eager."

Barker said Lindhout was a driven journalist. "She e'er believed that you can't recount an artless news from the rooftop of a hotel," she said. "She welcome to get paw into the intermediate of everything and she knew the risks of it."

It's believed a African driver and two guards escorting the dyad were also abducted.

Outside Concern said on the weekend that Canadian consular officials are in occurrence with Somali regime.

Kidnappings are vernacular in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents know been militant the interim governing and its Ethiopian noncombatant alinement since the act of antepenultimate twelvemonth.

U.S. Swimmer Jessica Hardy Withdraws From Olympics (Update2)

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Jessica Hardy agreed to withdraw from the U.S. Olympic swimming team after testing positive for a banned substance at the U.S. team trials last month, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement.

The 21-year-old Hardy, the U.S. record holder in the 100- meter breaststroke, had qualified to compete in that event at the Beijing Games as well as the 50-meter freestyle and the 400- meter medley relay.

Hardy tested positive for a low level of clenbuterol, a prohibited anabolic agent, during the U.S. trials on July 4 in Omaha, Nebraska, USADA said. While Hardy could have appealed the test result and kept her spot on the team, she withdrew from the team to avoid being a distraction, USADA said.

``Ms. Hardy is working expediently and agreeably to resolve the situation with as little impact to the U.S. Olympic team as possible,'' USADA Chief Executive Travis Tygart said. ``While some might have chosen to exhaust their legal options to try to force their way into the Games, Jessica instead chose to put her team's interests ahead of her own.''

Hardy will have to be replaced by someone already on the U.S. Olympic swim team, since the deadline for submitting rosters has passed. Rebecca Soni will swim the 100-meter breaststroke and Kara Lynn Joyce will swim the 50 freestyle, USA Swimming Executive Director Chuck Wielgus said in a statement.

Clenbuterol is a drug for respiratory disorders such as asthma. It also is a stimulant, which is why it's on the list of banned drugs.

Three Tests

Hardy was tested three times at the swim trials and passed twice, both before and after the failed exam. She has said repeatedly she never used the drug and doesn't know how it showed up in her urine. Under international doping rules, athletes are responsible for any banned substance found in their body, even if taken accidentally or inadvertently.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has declared that its team in Beijing will be drug-free, and Hardy's case comes just a week before competition begins.

``We have stated for some time that the top priority for the team is that it competes clean,'' USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said in an interview.

Asked if Hardy's case had any impact on that goal, Seibel replied: ``Not at all.''

Hardy didn't contest the laboratory findings and was granted additional time by an American Arbitration Association panel to investigate possible causes of her positive test. While she received a two-year ban from competition, Hardy will be permitted to come back to the AAA panel to present evidence which could reduce her period of ineligibility, USADA said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Wild and wacky ways to welcome the Olympics - Feature

Beijing - An acupuncturist tried to stick 2,008 needles in his head. Another man offered to give passers-by money if they brought him dead flies. And several others in various parts of the country are walking or riding their tricycles thousands of kilometres to Beijing - all to show support for the first Olympic Games to be held in China. As the countdown to the August 8-24 Games reaches its final days, excitement over Beijing hosting the games is spurring some people in China to do the unusual and extraordinary, with local media in recent weeks reporting several cases of extreme Olympic support. Once a largely conformist society, where standing out in terms of dress and behaviour was potentially dangerous, especially during the politically chaotic period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Chinese society now is increasingly accepting of expressions of individuality. "These people are acting on their own. They are not encouraged by anyone," said Xia Xueruan, a retired social studies professor at the prestigious Beijing University. "This reflects people's enthusiasm to participate in the Olympics."Shi Changlin, a 50-year-old convenience store owner, quit his business, spent 7,000 yuan (1,044 dollars) - not a small sum especially in a developing country like China - to modify his tricycle into a colourful wagon covered with flags of different countries and rode it for 3,600 kilometers from his hometown of Kunming in south-western China's Yunnan province across the country to Beijing. During his two-month journey, he even painstakingly taught himself the English phrase "One world, one dream. Welcome to Beijing" so he can use it to greet foreigners coming here for the games. "It took me a long time to learn to say that," the China News Service quoted Shi as saying. Another man did something similar, but started from his hometown in east China's Zhejiang, which is closer to Beijing. Still, Sun Dingguo, a 20-year-old sports fan, spent 11 months on the road. The young man even had his hair shaved in the shapes of the five Olympic rings and the Chinese words for Beijing. He has to go to the hairstylist once a month to maintain his hairdo. Along the way, he gained permission from local governments to gather 10,000 signatures for an Olympic support petition, which he wants to submit to the International Olympic Committee. Other such "niu ren," or stubborn people, as the public and media have nicknamed them, are still on their way to the capital, including a veteran from east China's Shandong province, who is walking. Two college students from Nanchang city in east China's Jiangxi province jogged to the capital, covering more than 10 kilometres a day before arriving in Beijing in early July after their month-long journey. One Beijing dog owner even had the white fur shaved off one side of her pet poodle so that she could dye the five-coloured Olympic rings onto the remaining hair. The man who paid people for dead flies was apparently trying to clean up Beijing to give the estimated half a million athletes, dignitaries, journalists, tourists and others a good impression of the city. Most of the enthusiasts sustained their ambitions on their own expenses or the generosity of others, sleeping or eating cheaply, while some tried to make money from their antics. Beijing's organizing committee, BOCOG, said it recognizes supporters' efforts, but does not encourage them. In more down-to-earth methods, more than 15,000 couples in Beijing have signed up to get married on August 8, the first day of the Olympics, according to the Beijing Daily on Friday. If all of them are able to be legally wed that day, it would set a record for the capital, the report quoted the city's Civil Affairs Bureau as saying. Other cities were also reporting high numbers of couples wanting to tie the knot on that day, which is also considered lucky because it has three eights, 08/08/08. Eight rhymes with the Chinese word for "getting rich."Joseph Cheng, a political science professor and long-time China analyst from City University of Hong Kong, said public support in China for the Olympics is strong, in contrast to overseas calls to boycott the Olympics after China's crackdown against Tibetan protestors and ongoing criticisms that China has not lived up to its promises to improve human rights when it bid for the games. "Everyone shares the leaders' enthusiasm. They see this as an opportunity to showcase the best of China," said Cheng, adding that partly due to China's history of being invaded and occupied as well as isolated following the communist takeover in 1949, Chinese people have a strong sense of wanting to be accepted and recognized by the world and to show that it has stood up. "But there's a twist. There's another objective (the government sees with the Olympics) - to mobilize Chinese people's patriotism, nationalism and national spirit," Cheng said. In a reflection of such support, more than 1 million people have signed up to be volunteers, according to BOCOG, although some were recruited by the government from state-owned or other large companies. But while many Beijingers flooded the streets of Beijing in 2001, honking horns, cheering and waving flags after the city won the bid to host the Olympics, there are few signs of the party atmosphere in Beijing and until this week few flags hung from windows or doors. Xia, the sociologist, however, said that was due to the rain in recent days. "You will see a lot of flags when the Olympic Games begin," he said.

Chinese officials assess Olympics terrorist threat

A Chinese police SWAT team member cleans an armored vehicle outside the hotel where International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and other IOC officials are staying, in Beijing Thursday July 31, 2008. (AP Photo/Greg Baker)

BEIJING — A Chinese army officer warned Friday that Islamic separatists are the biggest threat to the Olympics, but a regional official played down the danger.

At a rare briefing one week ahead of the opening of the games, Sen. Colonel Tian Yixiang of the Olympics security command center told reporters the biggest threat came from "the East Turkestan terrorist organization"_ the government's standard term for jihadist groups seeking to establish an Islamic state in China's far western region of Xinjiang.

A secondary threat came from Tibetan separatists who the government accused of orchestrating a wave of violent protests in western China in the spring, Tian said.

"These forces are trying all means to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games," Tian said, adding that a force of 34,000 soldiers has been positioned in Beijing and other Olympic host cities such as Shanghai to guard against such threats.

However, the deputy governor of the Xinjiang accused journalists of exaggerating the terrorist threat to the games.

"These terrorist groups are not as capable as some media organizations have claimed or broadcast," Kurexi Maihesuti told reporters in Beijing.

New terrorist concerns were prompted last week by videotaped threats purporting to be from an Islamic militant group claiming responsibility for explosions in four cities in western China in recent months, including two bus bombings in the city of Kunming that authorities said killed two people and injured 14.

But Maihesuti said many of those labeled terrorists were merely "lawless people."

Human rights groups have long accused Beijing of classifying many personal disputes or criminal acts as terrorism to justify harsh oppression.

Chinese authorities claim to have foiled a series of plots by members of Xinjiang's main Uighur ethnic group that it says targeted the Olympics, detaining 82 alleged Islamic terrorists and separatists in a major crackdown. Few details have been given and no evidence shown, although terror experts say insurgents based along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan have a limited capability to launch such attacks.

Maihesuti said such groups were tiny in number and poorly organized.

"So you can see that these terrorist groups are not that capable of instigating massive sabotage activities as some hostile forces hope to see."

China has laid on massive security for the Aug. 8-24 games, as much to prevent protests by political or religious dissidents as to stop crime and terrorism. A 100,000-strong contingent of police and special forces are safeguarding venues, while hundreds of thousands of Beijing residents have been formed into voluntary security patrols.

Maihesuti said the government knew of only "around three to four" Xinjiang terrorist groups, and that government successes against their plots show their lack of effectiveness.

In the videotaped threats last week, one militant, identified by the Washington-based monitoring group IntelCenter as commander Seyfullah, warned athletes and spectators "particularly the Muslims" to stay away from the Olympics.

"Our aim is to target the most critical points related to the Olympics. We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely using the tactics that have never been employed," he said.

Chinese police have played down the threat, saying the explosions in Chinese cities claimed by the group were not the work of terrorists.

Olympic Pollution Games

Ever since Beijing was named in 2001 to host the 2008 Summer Games, Chinese officials have been promising a "blue-sky" Olympics. Now, a week before the Games begin, pollution is threatening to rival sports as the biggest story out of Beijing. If the skies don't clear, watch for the haze over Bird's Nest Stadium to be a signature image of the Games.

This is partly because some 20,000 journalists are descending on the Chinese capital and the first thing that hits them -- literally -- when they get off the plane is the pollution. Twenty of the globe's 30 most polluted cities are in the Middle Kingdom, according to the World Bank. Another list puts the Chinese tally at 16 of the top 20. Some 70% of the country's lakes and rivers are contaminated, according to Chinese environmental officials. Hundreds of millions of rural Chinese lack clean drinking water.

In the leadup to the Olympics, China reportedly has spent $10 billion to improve air quality in Beijing. Most recently, local mandarins have been living out every radical environmentalist's greenest dream: shutting down factories by fiat, halting new construction, banning cars. Workers are required to go on partial-pay or forced to take vacation. This is not the way market economies work and it's a reminder that, for all its reforms, China is still run by Communists who haven't shaken the habits of a planned economy.

On one level, China's pollution problem is a symbol of its success, a reflection of the country's rapid economic growth since Deng Xiaoping first turned toward free-market policies 30 years ago. China is now the world's fourth-largest economy with an average per-capita income of more than $2,300. During that period some 400 million people -- more than the population of the U.S. -- have been lifted out of poverty.

A growing economy requires energy, and coal provides more than three-quarters of China's needs. Coal is cheap but its use in factories that lack clean technology is responsible for much of the country's air pollution. Higher living standards play a role too. Homes routinely have electricity now, and more than one lightbulb. Personal cars were nonexistent 30 years ago; today they are rapidly replacing bicycles on China's streets.

Beijing's leaders know they have a problem, and President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have pledged a cleanup. They're facing pressure from a growing middle class that is protesting both pollution and the official corruption that sometimes goes with it. After thousands of protestors took to the streets last year in the southern seaport city of Xiamen, the government scrapped plans for a chemical plant. In May, residents in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, demonstrated against a petrochemical plant under construction by the state-owned oil company PetroChina. For the first time ever, environmental and energy-saving targets have been incorporated into the nation's five-year economic plans.

But Beijing is having a hard time persuading local party bosses to value environmental stewardship over economic growth. Deng's reforms pushed decision-making to local levels, where officials have little or no incentive to heed antipollution regulations. Polluting companies "provide jobs and create tax revenues as well as personal payoffs," wrote scholar Zhang Zhongxiang in an article last year in the Far Eastern Economic Review. Shutting them down could create local unrest, he notes, as companies go out of business and people are thrown out of work.

Which brings us to the main problem: China's political system. For all their faults, democracies are better able to balance growth and environmental protection. History shows that as incomes rise and basic necessities are taken care of, modern societies put a higher priority on pollution control. Western democracies -- with their ability to work out compromises among competing interests -- have for the most part been able to accommodate green priorities without sacrificing growth.

On the other hand, authoritarian governments that rely largely on economic growth for their legitimacy aren't as adaptable, or as accountable for economic externalities like pollution. Think of the mess discovered in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, starting with Chernobyl or the Aral Sea. Many of the non-Chinese places on the world's "most polluted" lists are located in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan and other countries in the former Soviet Union.

The Summer Games are meant to recognize China's hard-won new status as a global economic power. Count us among those who are hoping for a blue-sky Olympics that will keep the focus on China's progress. Count us, too, among those who look forward to the day when Chinese politics is democratic enough to clear the air over the country's showcase cities.

Out of the Olympics, Sharapova Will Also Skip U.S. Open

Maria Sharapova will sit out the United States Open because of an injured right shoulder, the first major championship she will miss since she played in her first Grand Slam event in 2003.

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Jacques Boissinot/Associated Press

Maria Sharapova withdrew from the Rogers Open in Montreal after her second-round victory Wednesday because of a shoulder injury.

The 21-year-old Sharapova had already announced that she was pulling out of the Beijing Olympics because of the injury. Sharapova said in a posting on her Web site Friday that she probably would not need surgery and could be ready to play in two to three months. The Open begins Aug. 25.

“It hurts me so much to miss the Olympics and the U.S. Open, you have no idea,” she said. “Just to type those words hurt!!”

The No. 3-ranked Sharapova has played in each of the past 23 major championships, winning titles at Wimbledon in 2004, the United States Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in January.

Sharapova said a doctor who looked at tests on her shoulder from April and this week told her that she had been playing with a torn rotator cuff tendon since the spring.

“He actually couldn’t believe that I’ve been playing this long with this injury,” Sharapova said. “You can imagine that I was not very thrilled to hear that my medical team did not see this tear in my shoulder back in April.”

Sharapova said she would go to Arizona to work with a specialist for rehabilitation and strength work. She pulled out of the WTA tournament in Montreal on Wednesday night after winning a nearly three-hour match in which she double-faulted 17 times.

New dope test method aids Beijing in hosting clean Olympics

BEIJING, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- A new Olympic doping test method, along with other stringent anti-doping measures, will help Beijing host a clean Olympics, according to a Chinese anti-doping officials.

"The new test kits will track the use of human growth hormone (HGH), a substance that boosts strength and speeds recovery, beyond 48 hours," said Wu Moutian, deputy director of the Chinese Anti-doping Agency.

The new HGH test methods have been improved from the old ones used in previous Games, Wu said, but he refused to disclose the exact tracking period, citing that the information could be used to time the use of the drug.

The HGH test method has been approved by the International Olympic Committee. It was certified by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) in July, Wu said.

"The equipments are ready, and the lab staff are well-trained," he said.

The Olympic doping testing period began from July 27 and will run until the Games end.

A total of 4,500 doping controls, including 900 blood tests, are planned in Beijing, about 25 percent rise from those in Athens which produced 26 doping cases.

Forty-one doping control centers are planned for the upcoming Games, with 34 in Beijing. The top five in the events and two randomly-selected athletes will be tested for banned substances like steroids and blood-boosters.

At least one IOC medical representative, a WADA observer and a representative of the sports federations are present at each center when the athletes are tested.

"A clean Games doesn't mean there will be no drug use, but we will make sure that the rule-breakers are discovered," said Chen Zhiyu, an anti-doping official in the Games organizing committee.

"We have strict regulations and standards in accordance with IOC rules, and we have been improving our work to form an impeccable chain of security," he said.

At each center, urine samples are placed in two different containers. Once sealed, they can only be opened in the lab, so chances of swapping the samples will be minimized, said Chen.

Mirrors are placed on bathroom walls and those tested will be asked to roll up their sleeves to prevent cheats, he added.

All collected specimen are marked, put into suitcases and taken by guarded vehicles to a laboratory near the main Olympic venues. The whole process is closely watched.

"We also try not to make the athletes feel overburdened by the tests," he said, "those whose events are scheduled late in the day can take their tests back in the residential village, rather than in the competition venues, so that they can directly go back to rest," Chen said.

John Fahey, the WADA president, said preparation has been sound to make the Beijing Games a clean one.

"Doping cheats are more likely to be caught in Beijing than in any other Olympics in its history," he said.

"There have been enormous efforts made by China. They have the resources and a world-class laboratory. I have little doubt that they will make real efforts as they had in recent months in the preparation," said Fahey, according to a video clip on the WADA website.

Chinese cheered by eclipse a week before Olympics

XI'AN, China (AP) — Finally, China had an act of nature it could celebrate. After an Olympic year of freakish natural disasters, crowds of Chinese watched a total solar eclipse along the country's ancient Silk Road on Friday, one week before the start of the Summer Games in Beijing.

It was a welcome respite after a 2008 that began with heavy snowstorms at the Chinese New Year, followed by China's deadliest earthquake in a generation, then river flooding — and even a huge algae bloom at the Olympic sailing site. Online, some Chinese murmured about curses.

But on Friday evening, the eclipse — once a bad omen for China's imperial rulers — was cheered by a country eager for any auspicious sign before the games. State media called China's first solar eclipse of the century the "Olympics eclipse," and TV stations broadcast it live.

"Listen, I think everyone hopes this will bring some luck," said Xiao Ning, one of hundreds watching on the old city wall in Xi'an as the eclipse darkened the sky near sunset in this ancient capital and Silk Road terminus.

Told by the local newspaper's front-page story to watch the eclipse safely through darkened film, people held up X-rays of teeth and other bones, cheerfully tearing the sheets into smaller pieces to share with others.

The eclipse began in the Canadian Arctic, then passed over Greenland, western Siberia and Mongolia before reaching China.

It took a poetic course across China, where the first recorded solar eclipse was found scratched into Shang Dynasty oracle bones more than 3,000 years ago.

Following the northern route of the ancient Silk Road, it passed over the western desert county of Yiwu, where about 10,000 tourists gathered to watch after astronomers said it would have the best view; over Dunhuang, where the oldest known map of the stars was found in a desert cave a century ago; and over Jiuquan, where China launched its first manned spaceflight.

The eclipse trailed off just beyond Xi'an in the central China region once considered by Chinese to be the center of the world. The Olympics, and its endless official promotion, will bring back that feeling.

Despite the ruling Communist Party's emphasis on scientific thinking, China still has its superstitions. The date and time of the Olympics' opening ceremony on Aug. 8 are stuffed with as many number eights as possible because "eight" in Chinese sounds like "fortune" — it starts at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of '08.

But adopting the solar eclipse as a good sign meant stripping away the old superstition about it being the unluckiest event in the sky.

In ancient times, it was believed a dragon was eating the sun. Emperors were blamed and had to apologize for angering the heavens.

Later, being able to predict solar eclipses and show control over the skies became so political that some eclipse reports apparently were manipulated, said John B. Henderson, a history professor at Louisiana State University who has written about Chinese cosmology.

"Eclipses were reported where none took place, in areas of political or bureaucratic strife," Henderson said. "It may have been a means of voicing dissent."

On the city wall, Xiao Ning said the eclipse did have some relation to a 6.1-magnitude aftershock earlier in the day in neighboring Sichuan province, the site of May's devastating earthquake, but he seemed to be alone in his opinion.

The urge to seek links between the Olympics and natural phenomena such as the eclipse is understandable, if not exactly rational, said Jiang Xiaoyuan, a social sciences professor at Shanghai's Jiaotong University who has written about astronomy research and patriotism in China.

"We'd already known about this eclipse many years before we got the right to host the Olympics, so how can we explain this is retribution?" Jiang said.

After the eclipse ended, people coming down from the wall paused at the sight of a more than 6-foot-long telescope mounted on a bicycle cart. Niu Guodong, a 54-year-old retiree, stood in undershirt and rolled-up pants urging bystanders to take a peek — "Jupiter," he said in English. The cost was 10 yuan, or about $1.50.

His name card said "Xi'an astronomy hobbyist." He said he watched the eclipse outside the city, where the buildings aren't so tall.

Asked about the eclipse and the Olympics, he said with disdain: "Please. There's no relation at all."

Beijing to hold 2nd rehearsal for Olympics opening ceremony

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The second full dress rehearsal of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony will be held in the National Stadium on Saturday night, as previously scheduled.

Different from the first rehearsal, ceremony organizers will put in a few shows, starting from 6 p.m., before the opening ceremony performances kick off at 8 p.m., according to the official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Due to the new arrangement, public areas of the Beijing Olympic Park and the National Stadium, or better known as the Bird's Nest for its unique structure of interwoven steel beams, will be open at 4 p.m., two hours earlier than during the first rehearsal.

Tonight's rehearsal will also be featured with fireworks late into the night, which is expected to cheer up the weekend audiences.

Spectators who will be waiting outside the stadium to watch the fireworks are advised to stay further way, for a better view and to ease the traffic burden near the stadium.

The rehearsal audiences are also advised to take buses, including 28 non-stop bus routes bound for the Olympic Park, or subways to watch the show.

All subway lines, except the Airport Line, will operate for some extra time to get audiences home after the rehearsal is over.

Audiences are reminded there are five entrances into the Olympic Park. Organizers said most people had swarmed into the Olympic Park from two entrances during the first rehearsal, causing long queues for security checks.

The opening ceremony directed by famous Chinese film director Zhang Yimou has been kept in top secrecy by its organizers. Tight security was deployed outside the stadium during the first rehearsal that lasted three and half hours.

All the workers on duty had signed agreements with the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee (BOCOG) to keep what they saw confidential.

But the secrecy was breached after South Korean's SBS TV station broadcast some footage of the opening ceremony on Wednesday, showing fragments of a video of the rehearsal, including scenes depicting the past and future of Chinese culture.

The first full dress rehearsal was held in secret on July 11. The third and last rehearsal is scheduled for Tuesday.

Which country will win the most gold medals at the Beijing Olympics?

The Beijing Olympics is less than 2 months away, and while some athletes are still trying to qualify for a berth to participate, others are doing what they can to ensure they will have the best finish. Countries are pouring in tonnes of resources in hope that athletes would achieve national glory by winning a gold medal.

While the Olympics do not lack feel-good stories of athletes overcoming adversity to make it to the games (e.g. the Jamaican bobsled team at the Calgary Winter Olympics), the super powers have traditionally dominated the podium. At the Athens Olympics of 2004, for example, the top-five gold medal nations are: USA, China, Russia, Australia, and Japan.

Which country will win the most number of gold medals this year?

ZiiValue (chance)	MyValue (0% to 100% chance)	(6)	Possible Outcomes
	33%			U.S.A.
	32%			China
	20%			Russia
	5%			Australia
	2%			Japan
	5%			Germany
	1%			France
	2%			Another country

2008 Olympics: Country with Most Medals?

In 2004 Olympics, Athletes from 74 countries won at least one medal, leaving 127 countries without a medal. The United States won the most medals overall (102), as well as the most gold (36) and silver (39) medals, while the Russian Federation won the most bronze medals (38). Surprisingly, China won 63 medals with gold (32) and Silver (17), 2nd in the rank.

The host nation Greece finished the games with sixteen medals overall (six gold, six silver, and four bronze). Israel, United Arab Emirates, Chile and Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) won Olympic gold medals for the first time in their history. Paraguay won its first medal ever at the Olympics, a silver.

Prediction Guideline

• Your score is calculated at the end of the closing day by: (outcome accuracy x time weight).
  
• Time weight represents how much time you hold your prediction. So the early you predict, the higher your score if you get it right.
  
• If you update your prediction, we will score all your update(s) based on their time weight.
  

STEP 1: My Prediction

	ZiiValue (chance)	MyValue (0% to 100% chance)	(5)	Possible Outcomes
	62%			United States (USA)
	20%			China (CHN)
	8%			Russia (RUS)
	3%			Australia (AUS)
	2%			Japan (JPN)
	4%			Germany (GER)
	2%			Another (please specify)