2008 Olympic Results - Another Way of Looking at the Numbers

The 2008 Summer Olympics are over, and the results are in. The official rankings are weighted by the type and number of medals won, and with that system, the top ten countries were: China, United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Italy, France, Ukraine, and Netherlands (the last three were tied).

Canada came in 19th with 18 medals: 3 gold, 9 silver, and 7 bronze.

If you rank countries by the total number of medals won, the results are similar but the United States overtakes China for the number one spot. The rankings are United States, China, Russia, Britain, Australia, Germany, France, South Korea, Ukraine, Italy.

Canada comes in 15th when ranked by number of medals.

But we're a small country. Clearly a large country like China over a billion people has a larger pool of potential athletes to choose from. So how about looking at the medals won per capita? I reworked the rankings by sorting them by number of medals won per millions of population (the full table is at the end of this blog entry).

With this ranking, Bahamas comes in at number one. They won only two medals, but with a tiny population of 331,000 that puts them in first place. Second, not surprisingly, is Jamaica, which won 11 medals with a population of only 2.7 million.

Iceland, with a population of just over three hundred thousand, won a single medal, putting them in third place.

The only larger countries (more than 10 million population) making the top ten list were Australia and Cuba.

How did the big boys, the officially ranked top 10 countries, do?

China         69
United States 45
Russia        38
Britain       27
Germany       39
Australia      6
South Korea   32
Japan         58
Italy         40
France        33
Ukraine       34
Netherlands   23

None of them made the top 10 except Australia which was 6th, coincidentally the same as the official ranking. China is a big loser at 69th place as is the United States at 45th.

Dead last when ranking by population is India, which won only three medals with it's over 1 billion population.

When I started this exercise I had hoped that Canada would come up higher in the rankings. When ranked by population, Canada is 37th, so we don't come up higher in the rankings by population than by medals, although we come out ahead of the big players. At 0.54 medals per million people we're in the same range as many other similarly developed countries.

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Medal Ranking	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Population	Medals per Million Capita
56t	Bahamas	0	1	1	2	331000	6.04
13	Jamaica	6	3	2	11	2714000	4.05
56t	Iceland	0	1	0	1	316252	3.16
37t	Slovenia	1	2	2	5	2029000	2.46
6	Australia	14	15	17	46	21394309	2.15
28t	Cuba	2	11	11	24	11268000	2.13
19t	New Zealand	3	1	5	9	4275100	2.11
19t	Norway	3	5	2	10	4778500	2.09
56t	Lithuania	0	3	4	7	3361100	2.08
56t	Armenia	0	0	6	6	3002000	2
16t	Belarus	4	5	10	19	9690000	1.96
28t	Mongolia	2	2	0	4	2629000	1.52
56t	Trinidad and Tobago	0	2	0	2	1333000	1.5
37t	Estonia	1	1	0	2	1340600	1.49
19t	Georgia	3	0	3	6	4395000	1.37
37t	Latvia	1	1	1	3	2268000	1.32
37t	Bahrain	1	0	0	1	760168	1.32
28t	Denmark	2	2	3	7	5489022	1.28
19t	Slovakia	3	2	1	6	5402273	1.11
56t	Croatia	0	2	3	5	4555000	1.1
19t	Hungary	3	5	2	10	10043000	1
10t	Netherlands	7	5	4	16	16445000	0.97
28t	Kazakhstan	2	4	7	13	15422000	0.84
37t	Azerbaijan	1	2	4	7	8467000	0.83
56t	Mauritius	0	0	1	1	1262000	0.79
4	Britain	19	14	15	48	60975000	0.79
28t	Switzerland	2	0	4	6	7637300	0.79
37t	Finland	1	1	2	4	5318105	0.75
56t	Ireland	0	1	2	3	4422100	0.68
37t	Bulgaria	1	1	3	5	7640238	0.65
7	South Korea	13	10	8	31	48224000	0.64
10t	France	7	16	17	40	64473140	0.62
10t	Ukraine	7	5	16	28	46059306	0.61
19t	Czech Republic	3	3	0	6	10403136	0.58
56t	Sweden	0	4	1	5	9215021	0.54
19t	Canada	3	9	6	18	33354500	0.54
3	Russia	24	21	28	73	141888900	0.51
5	Germany	17	10	15	42	82191000	0.51
9	Italy	8	10	10	28	59619290	0.47
14t	Spain	5	10	3	18	46063000	0.39
56t	Kyrgyzstan	0	1	1	2	5317000	0.38
16t	Romania	4	1	3	8	21438000	0.37
14t	Kenya	5	5	4	14	37538000	0.37
2	United States	36	38	36	110	304943000	0.36
56t	Austria	0	1	2	3	8340924	0.36
56t	Greece	0	2	2	4	11147000	0.36
56t	Serbia	0	1	2	3	9858000	0.3
37t	Zimbabwe	1	3	0	4	13349000	0.3
37t	Panama	1	0	0	1	3343000	0.3
56t	Tajikistan	0	1	1	2	6736000	0.3
56t	Moldova	0	0	1	1	3794000	0.26
19t	Poland	3	6	1	10	38115967	0.26
28t	North Korea	2	1	3	6	23790000	0.25
37t	Uzbekistan	1	2	3	6	27372000	0.22
56t	Singapore	0	1	0	1	4588600	0.22
37t	Dominican Republic	1	1	0	2	9760000	0.2
8	Japan	9	6	10	25	127690000	0.2
37t	Belgium	1	1	0	2	10584534	0.19
37t	Portugal	1	1	0	2	10623000	0.19
56t	Chinese Taipei	0	0	4	4	23000000	0.17
56t	Togo	0	0	1	1	6585000	0.15
28t	Argentina	2	0	4	6	40301927	0.15
56t	Israel	0	0	1	1	7303000	0.14
37t	Turkey	1	4	3	8	70586256	0.11
37t	Tunisia	1	0	0	1	10327000	0.1
16t	Ethiopia	4	1	2	7	79221000	0.09
19t	Brazil	3	4	8	15	187529000	0.08
1	China	51	21	28	100	1325693000	0.08
56t	Ecuador	0	1	0	1	13341000	0.07
56t	Morocco	0	1	1	2	31224000	0.06
28t	Thailand	2	2	0	4	63038247	0.06
56t	Chile	0	1	0	1	16763470	0.06
56t	Algeria	0	1	1	2	33858000	0.06
37t	Cameroon	1	0	0	1	18549000	0.05
56t	Colombia	0	1	1	2	44513090	0.04
56t	Afghanistan	0	0	1	1	27145000	0.04
56t	Malaysia	0	1	0	1	27170000	0.04
56t	Venezuela	0	0	1	1	27953701	0.04
37t	Iran	1	0	1	2	70495782	0.03
28t	Mexico	2	0	1	3	106682500	0.03
56t	Nigeria	0	1	3	4	148093000	0.03
56t	Sudan	0	1	0	1	38560000	0.03
37t	Indonesia	1	1	3	5	231627000	0.02
56t	South Africa	0	1	0	1	47850700	0.02
56t	Egypt	0	0	1	1	75231000	0.01
56t	Vietnam	0	1	0	1	87375000	0.01
37t	India	1	0	2	3	1137087600	0

Book Review: Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze?

Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? And 114 Other Questions
Penguin Canada 2006
ISBN-10: 0-14-305390-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-14-305390-3

I subscribe to New Scientist, a weekly science magazine similar to Scientific American, but published in the UK. The first thing I do when I receive my weekly issue is turn to the back and check out "The Last Word". This is the part of the magazine where readers write in with questions about science and other readers write in with answers.

Like it's predecessor Does Anything Eat Wasps? this book presents the best of the Last Word column in book form. It presents about 100 questions and answers divided up into categories such as our bodies, plants and animals, and food and drink.

The questions and answers are fascinating. Many of them make you think "that's something I see all the time but never asked why". It's also interesting that not all scientists agree on the answers. Some of the answers are quite humorous, even tongue in cheek And many of them I've never seen answered before.

My criticism with the previous book in the series was that, for some strange reason, they decided to use US measurement units rather than metric, even though New Scientist uses metric units as do most scientists even in the US. Thankfully they didn't continue this practice for Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze, at least in the Penguin Canada edition I read.

The book is highly recommended. Whether you consider yourself scientifically literate or not, you will get a lot out of it, both in the form entertainment and education.

The latest book in the series, How to Fossilize Your Hamster, was recently released and I'm looking forward to reading it once I get hold of a copy.

Star Trek Gets A Facelift

I'm a big fan of Star Trek, especially the original series.

Recently I was thinking, how would the original series hold up against contemporary television shows? The scripts and acting were excellent, and the image quality holds up quite well as it was made on 35mm film. I think there is only one area where it would be lacking and that is the special effects. While spectacular for their time (1966-1969), modern audiences are used to computer generated images (CGI). The original series primarily used models and matte paintings, which limited what could be done.

Maybe someone at Paramount studios had the same thought. In 2006 they began syndication of a new version of the original series that was rendered in high definition with new CGI visual effects. Most of the external space shots of the Enterprise and other ships have been redone, and many bridge viewscreen images have been updated. But the live action has for the most part been left original, other than being cleaned up for high definition.

I recently received a DVD set of season one of the original series as a gift. After viewing the season one episodes I decided to buy season two. It seems that Amazon is no longer stocking the original DVD set, but the digitally enhanced version of season 2 was just released, so I bought that instead.

Overall I like the new version. The DVDs are similar to the original set, but have s few more extras. Apparently this was originally planned to be a hybrid DVD/HD-DVD set but the HD-DVD format was dropped when BluRay won the format wars, so the discs are one-sided but unlabeled as if they should be double-sided.

I was afraid that the new effects would be glaring when interspersed with the old footage, but they're pretty subtle. Take, for example, the episode The Doomsday Machine. There is a shot of the USS Constellation lying damaged in space. You can see some rocks or other debris around it, and in one shot a rock actually bounces off the ship's saucer section. This is something that wasn't feasible in the 1960's when they used models of the ship. (In fact, an interesting piece of trivia about this episode is that the model of the USS Constellation was actually a commercial plastic model kit that the effects team purchased, assembled, and added some damage to. The ship's registration number -- NCC-1017, used the included decals from the Enterprise, NCC-1710, with the numbers rearranged).

The digitally remastered version was controversial among Star Trek fans. Some felt it was tampering with perfection. After viewing a few of the episodes, I like it.

Although it is hard to believe, there are people who have never watched the original series. If the digitally remastered series exposes more people to the show (either on television or by purchasing DVDs) then its a good thing for Star Trek fandom.

So when it comes time for me to buy the season three DVD set, which version will I go for -- the original or enhanced? I think it will be the enhanced version. (That's assuming I buy the third season at all; it's definitely the poorest of the show's three seasons. But then again maybe new special effects can salvage my choice for the worst episode of the series The Lights of Zetar).

You can get the Star Trek DVDs as individual discs, boxed sets for each season, or as a boxed set of all three seasons. It's available from a number of sources such as Best Buy, Future Shop, or on-line from Amazon.

Wikipedia has more on the remastered series under the entry for the original series.

Youtube also has some clips of the new CGI scenes, including some side by side comparisons of the old and new.

The Port Elmsley Drive-in

Are you old enough to remember going to the drive-in theater? Most of the drive-ins have shut down in the last couple of decades. Here in Ottawa there used to be one in the Bayshore area but it was torn down to build the Coliseum multiplex theatre.

Recently this summer we went to the Port Elmsley drive-in. It is located between Smiths Falls and Perth. After 55 years it is still in operation.

The sound comes through your FM radio so you don't have to worry about driving away and ripping out the speaker in the window like the old days. They have a snack bar with drinks, candy, popcorn, fries, burgers, etc. They even show retro drive-in commercials during intermission. The place has a family atmosphere -- the owner gets on the audio to announce the night's movies or even comment on the film during intermission.

The night we went there was a triple bill showing Wall-E, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Hancock. Most of the people there were families with young kids. There is a playground for the kids to enjoy before the movie starts. There was some rain during the second film but it didn't dampen our spirits.

We left after the first two movies because we had an hour drive home and it was just getting too late for us old folks. We had a great time!

If you live in Eastern Ontario, it makes a great outing for a summer evening. Check it out, but get there early if you want a good spot!

The web site is http://www.portelmsleydrivein.com/

Visit to The Henry Ford

I was recently in the Detroit, Michigan area (Ann Arbor) and had a rainy Sunday free so I went to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, MI. I spent almost five hours there seeing all the displays, which are much more than just cars. Some of the highlights:

• the rocking chair from Ford's Theater that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was assassinated
• the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile, a car in the shape of a hot dog
• the Dymaxion House, a pre-fabricated house of the future designed in the 1940s by Buckminster Fuller
• the bus where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person, starting the US civil rights movement
• the car that John F. Kennedy was in when he was shot
• a huge steam-powered electrical generating plant used in a Ford factory
• George Washington's camp bed
• Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter
• lots of cars, airplanes, trains, and steam engines

On the same site you can also check out an IMAX theater, the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, the Automotive Hall of Fame, and a theme park called Greenfield Village.

Links:

1. Official Web Site
2. Wikipedia Entry