Sunday, August 24 
The New York Times comes out with another great interactive graphic, this time it’s a visual history of the number of medals won by each country at the summer olympics, dating back to 1896. Using a rough layout of a map of the world, the size of each circle represents the total number of medals. Hover over a circle and it pops up the specific number of golds, silvers and bronzes. Drag the timeline slider at the top and you can dynamically see how they change over time.
You can see, for example, the rising dominance of the Soviet Union and East Germany culminating in massive wins in 1980, aided no doubt by the USA’s boycotting of those games. Then China appears out of nowhere at the 1984 Los Angeles games, culminating in its 100 medals (including 51 golds) this year as host.
Actually until I saw this graphic I hadn’t realized Britain, my birth country, had done so well. At 47 medals that’s pretty darn good for a country with twenty times smaller population than China.
beijing, olympics, information design, ny times, 2008 summer olympics, medal wins, new york times, interactive graphics | IN CATEGORIES... Nifty Stuff, Culture Wednesday, August 13 
If you’ve been wondering about the design of the medals being presented at this year’s Olympics in Beijing, here is an interview with the man who led the design, Professor Xiao Yong. Like so much else at the Beijing games, from the Euro starchitects’ buildings combined with the massive traditional front gate, the medals are a combination of European and Chinese traditions. They combine the usual bronze, silver and gold metals with stone, specifically jade.
Their front side is traditional. There’s Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, where the first Modern Olympic Games was held in 1896 thanks to the tireless efforts of Baron Pierre de Coubertin. It’s the reverse side that makes it a perfect blend of the West and East, rather Chinese. A ring of elegance, nobility and virtue adds that essential touch of Chinese culture to the medals. And as any Chinese would tell you, the ring couldn’t be made of anything but jade for only jade can represent all the three qualities.
I love this quote by Professor Xiao Yong: “In fact, the process was quite sophisticated, while the result was quite simple.” As so often happens, the best simple things result from a complex process.
Saturday, July 12 
The NY Times has done another nice audio slideshow, this time of some of the amazing buildings that are going up related to the Olympics. They have mini reviews of:
beijing, olympics, architecture, starchitect, herzog de meuron, water cube, birdsnest, rem koolhaas, norman foster | IN CATEGORIES... Architecture