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Day One: Psssh uuh uuh psssh pshhhhh ahh

The Games have begun (well they began on Wednesday with the women's football, but hey). It was fun watching the men's road race on Saturday afternoon, with sections of the Great Wall as a backdrop, and in some cases, as the track. It would have been nicer, of course, if the security people had allowed any spectators to be present at the finish line.

Day Zero: or, Why the Olympic Ideals are dead, thank you Mr Putin

"The General Assembly... Urges Member States to observe, within the framework of the Charter of the United Nations, the Olympic Truce, individually and collectively, during the Games of the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing, the vision of which is based on the slogan "One world, one dream", and the following Paralympic Games;"

- United Nations General Assembly, 16.10.07 (source PDF)

Anchorage Day Two: WBC super-heavyweights after dark

Greenpeace have set up a tent outside IWC59, where they are recording video blog entries for what they call the Whale Broadcasting Corporation. Their programming includes such items as "WBC News Update", "Good Morning Anchorage", and "Whales After Dark".

The latter sounds like a cetacean porn show, but Monday's premier episode was in fact a discussion panel including, among other luminaries, the Eastern Suburbs' very own John Howard mouthpiece, Malcolm Turnbull.

Eskimo subsistence whaling reaffirmed

Aboriginal subsistence hunting of approximately 56 bowhead whales a year till 2012 has been approved on day two of IWC59.

Here's the background paper prepared for the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Committee, and a paper submitted by Russia on behalf of the Chuktoka people. The "needs" statements for Japan and Greenland are yet to be discussed.

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