I've read reports about Russia using similar techniques to provide good weather for big national events. My question is why don't we do that here? Seriously, I think the folks in Florida who were swamped this weekend by Hurricane Fay wouldn't have minded a little weather modification.
But speaking of the games, a few random thoughts. It's hard to see them as anything but a rousing success for China. The Olympics were China's coming out party to the world, a sign that they had arrived as a world power and a chance to show off Beijing as a modern metropolis the equal of New York, London or any other world capital. And the Games went off, basically, without a hitch, a remarkable accomplishment given both the size of the event, and considering how recently China was essentially a Third World nation.
The opening ceremonies were magical, and at a couple of moments, perhaps just a little frightening. The opening scene, where 2008 drummers performed in unison, had a militaristic quality about it - despite the smiles. In fact one of the stunning things about the opening ceremony was the huge throng of people power employed in them. One sequence featured blocks meant to symbolize China's invention of movable type printing. For several minutes the blocks move perfectly in intricate patterns forming Chinese characters, waves, ripples and other shapes. You assumed it was the result of a computer activating hundreds of hydraulic pumps, that is until the end of the routine when a person emerged from under each of the 2008 blocks. It showed China’s ability to marshal enormous groups of people to work in unison for a common purpose – perhaps a subtle message to the West?
The opening ceremonies were so mind-blowing it's not a surprise that the closing ceremonies couldn't quite match up. But the closer has more of a casual theme anyway, and were still well done with the exception of London's contribution, which was just weird right down to having Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page perform "Whole Lotta Love". It was a pretty odd choice of song for an Olympics closing ceremony. Thinking about the Zeppelin back catalog, I came up with "The Rover" as a better selection, please feel free to submit your own.
There was a lot of talk about whether any Olympics will ever mean as much to another country as the Beijing Olympics did. Frankly, it would be hard for that to happen. The Beijing Games were the culmination of a nation's dreams - a nation of 1.3 billion people. There were said to have been one million volunteers for the Games and China spent more than $40 billion getting ready for them. Chinese Basketball star Yao Ming said that China hosting the Games were a dream of his since he was a child, and he played despite a bad injury that really should have kept him on the bench. He couldn't miss participating in China's grand moment.
Russia, though, could try to use the Winter Games in Sochi in 2014 for a public "re-launch" of their international image. Sochi will mark the first time that Russia hosts the Games (Moscow was the site of the 1980 Summer Olympics, but it was the Soviet Union at the time and the boycott by dozens of Western nations over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan meant that the Moscow Games basically became the forgotten Olympics). Having the world's attention would give Russia a chance to show the richness of Russian culture and history, and provide a chance to rehab their image abroad (particularly in the West). Not only has Russia's image been damaged by the recent conflict in Georgia and the ongoing disputes with NATO, but think about how Russians are usually depicted in pop culture in the West. A Russian in a book, movie, or TV show is invariably shown as a criminal, prostitute, mail-order bride, or crazed ex-KGB colonel. The Winter Games in Sochi could give Russia a chance to show the world a different image.
Still, it's going to be hard for Sochi, Vancouver, London, or anywhere else to top the spectacle that was Beijing.
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