davidnielsen's blog

Smoggy BeijingFirst impressions after five hours in Beijing:

What a mess: Monday was one of those sickeningly smoggy days that we’ve been warned about. The gray-yellow muck was hard on the eyes, in more ways than one.

Sitting in the Newark airport I can gaze out the window and see the Empire State Building and the rest of the skyscrapers in Manhattan. I can also see what’s missing – the World Trade Center.

Every time I see the New York skyline, I can’t help but feel saddened and angry.

9:03 AM Sunday morning, August 3:

I’m been sitting in the lovely Newark, N.J. airport for nearly two hours now, waiting for my 12:10 pm flight to Beijing.

If that sounds bad, don’t fret. It could have been much worse.

At the recent MLB All-Star game, we nearly had a messy situation where a position player would have had to pitch.

Fortunately the AL scored a run in the bottom of the 15th inning and won the game. Otherwise it might have gotten ugly as both teams had used up all their pitchers.

The news coming out of the West Coast television network meetings with the media this week confirmed what we long thought about Deadwood. It's likely never coming back.

So all those promises from HBO about how they were going to produce two two-hour movies to wrap up the Deadwood saga?

They're bogus.

The moral of the story? Never believe another word HBO says.

How powerful is Michael Phelps?

Consider this: Phelps might be swimming in a final every night at the Olympic trials but two – the final night of the meet and tonight.

Tonight was his 23rd birthday.

You don’t think that USA Swimming jiggered with the schedule to give Phelps an easy night for his birthday, do you?

One down, seven to go for swimming star Michael Phelps.

But it wasn't an easy one.

In his first of what is expected to be eight finals at the Olympic swimming trials, Phelps set a world record in the 400-meter individual medley Sunday night. And it's a good thing he did because otherwise he would have lost to Ryan Lochte, who also dipped under Phelps' old mark of 4:06.22.

Another week brings two more ghastly examples of powerful institutions wielding their immense power irresponsibly.

Aren't we supposed to learn from history?

In 1980 President Jimmy Carter prevented American athletes from competing in the Moscow Summer Olympics, because Carter was upset that The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan.

In 1984 the Soviet Union retaliated by keeping their athletes from competing in the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

The New York Times editorial board weighed in a proposed "Three strikes and you're out" law in Connecticut. Connecticut lawmakers are proposing that any criminal convicted of three violent crimes should be sentenced to life in prison.