Why Does That Chinese Tattoo Look Like a Bar Code?

We don't want to throw a cold bucket of confetti on the proceedings late tonight, but could it be that all of the perceived new focus by USA Basketball and its players on preparation and presenting a warm face to the public has an awful lot to do with the 1.3 billion consumers the shoe companies (and others) want to reach in China during these Games? (Not that we would suggest corporate interests influence national sporting efforts. Sorry, Liu Xiang.) Regardless, we'll be up for the gold-medal match between the US and Spain because NBC has finally deemed us worthy of a live event shown at roughly the same time the event occurs. (We had assumed this was a core tenet of the phrase "live television", but The More You Know, we guess.) Therefore, we will stay up to see it out here in the Western hinterlands at 11:30 pm. (Yes, 2:30 am in the East.) After all, it sounds like we've got as good a chance of getting lucky in the middle of the night with the team as just about anyone. (Except José Calderón. He's not even playing.) NBC to Show Gold Medal Game Live Across the Country [Awful Announcing] Nike asks Chinese government to identify Yahoo blogger [Technically Incorrect]