Steel has been in the news lately because the newly unveiled, bizarre-looking, 2012 Olympic mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville, are supposed to have been made out of the last two drops of British steel used to construct the 2012 London Olympic stadium. So, the quiz question I'd like to highlight this week is:

In 2009, China produced 568 million metric tons of crude steel. How much did the No. 2 country produce?

a) 88 million metric tons    b) 298 million    c) 458 million

Answer after the jump ...

Read on

When the Olympics first started, I directed this blog's readers to "White Snow, Brown Rage," Reihan Salam's Slate opus on diversity and the Winter Olympics. At the time, I wondered how globalization has impacted the winter games -- are more countries participating? Winning medals?

The answer is to both question is yes, as you can see above. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the number of countries participating in the Winter Olympics has skyrocketed -- with the number of medal winners increasing in turn. (It's a bit hard to see on the graph, but the percentage of countries winning medals has held at around 30 percent since 1988.) 

That said, the Winter Olympics are just keeping pace with the Summer Olympics, as you can see on the chart below. Since 1988, the number of countries sending athletes to the summer games has increased around 46 percent, and around 44 percent for the winter games. 

Georgia's Olympic committe reacted angrily to the International Luge Federation blaming the death of Nodar Kumaritashvili during a practice run last week on human error: 

"I exclude the possibility that Nodar was not experienced enough," committee chief Giorgi Natsvlishlili said in televised comments. "From my point of view the track was at fault."

The International Luge Federation blamed the fatal crash on the luger, saying he had failed to compensate properly when he slid into the curve. But its chairman, Joseph Fendt, said Saturday the track had turned out to be far faster than its designers ever intended it to be, and Olympic officials have shortened it to slow speeds and altered it to keep lugers on the track if they crash.

"Safety standards were not properly observed," Mr. Natsvlishvili said.

He hinted that Georgia might take "further action" regarding the accident, but didn't elaborate.

I don't really know the ins and outs of luge politics, but it seems to me that shortening the track during competition constitutes an admission that there's something wrong with the track. As Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said, "No sports mistake is supposed to lead to a death."

If indeed Kumaritashvili was not qualified to ride on the track -- doubtful since he was ranked 44th in the world -- that still doesn't exactly exonerate the organizers.  Why are inexperienced riders being allowed to compete in such a dangerous sport at the Olympic level?

WHISTLER OLYMPIC PARK, CANADA - FEBRUARY 12: (FRANCE OUT) Martin Schmitt of Germany during the Ski Jumping Individual NH Qualifications on Day 1 of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games on February 12, 2010 in Whistler Olympic Park, Canada.

The Gaggle blog over on our sister site Newsweek notes that Canada's parliament has shut down for two months (?!) for the winter Olympic games.

For those of you who have gotten behind on your Canadian politics, here’s a basic rundown. Prime Minster Steven Harper, who leads the Conservative Party, was facing a lot of difficult issues: an inquiry over maltreatment of Afghan detainees, economic woes hosting the Olympics. So he announced in December that he was basically shutting down, or proroguing, Parliament until March 3, 2010, the day after the Olympics ends. And, when they come back to session next month, the agenda is basically reset: any bill that was on the table is done and gone away with. This has lead to numerous prorogation protests across the country, despite Canadians being generally known for their politeness. A one-week shutdown due to a massive snowstorm isn’t looking so insane, now is it?....

As a Canadian citizen, I generally don’t like to slam on my native land; I’ll definitely root for Team Canada come this Friday. But in terms of ridiculous government deadlock and partisanship, unfortunately, we have already claimed the gold medal.  

Which makes complaining about Congress feel a bit silly. 

Thankfully, beyond a few muggings, last night's massive Brazilian blackout seems to have caused little lasting damage. But the international coverage of the event is probably a good preview for the Olympic host country's next six years:

Questions remained about what happened and what the fallout would be in Brazil, a nation seen as an ascending economic and political power.

"The image of Brazil, of Rio, is bad enough with all the violence," said 35-year-old graphic designer Paulo Viera, as he sat in a restaurant a block from the sandy arc of Copacabana.

Standing in an open-air restaurant where patrons were drinking quickly warming beer, Viera said he worried about how the outage might look for a city that last month was picked to host the Olympics and will be the showcase city for soccer's World Cup in 2014. "We don't need this to happen. I don't know how it could get worse."

The blackout comes on the heels of a wave of gang fighting in Rio's slums that led to violence fears ahead of the games.

"It's sad to see such a beautiful city with such a precarious infrastructure," 22-year-old law student Igor Fernandes said. "This shouldn't happen in a city that is going to host the Olympic Games."

This is a little unfair. Even Rio's mayor acknowledges that the city has a long way to go in terms of safety and infrastructure before the games, but they do have another six years, and the IOC knew what they were getting when they awarded Brazil the games. 

The problem with developing coutries hosting events like the Olympics is that while the intention is to highlight the enormous progress they've made, they're just as likely to highlight the shortcomings. . Every crime wave or infrastructure failure, or corruption scandal Rio suffers in the next six years will now be covered in the context of whether the city is ready for the games.

Just ask South Africa or Russia. 

So much for that presidential pitch:

Rio de Janeiro and Madrid are vying to be the host of the 2016 Olympic Games, after Chicago and Tokyo were eliminated by the International Olympic Committee.

Tokyo secured the fewest of the 95 votes available in the second round at the meeting in Copenhagen. Chicago was knocked out in the first round vote.

Cities will be eliminated until one secures a majority with the winner set to be announced after 1730 BST.

Chicago's early exit was a surprise, with bookmakers making them favourites.

For reasons my colleague Annie Lowrey explained, Chicago may have actually doged a bullet today. But it's still pretty embarassing for Obama, who traveled to Copenhagen to make a last minute pitch for Chicago. 

One has to imagine the White House thought that Chicago had this in the bag if President Obama was willing to take time away from debates on health care, Afghanistan, and Iran to advocate for his hometown. As John Hoberman wrote on the site this week:

If he fails, the right wing will pillory him as a dilettante who should have kept his eye on weightier affairs of state. Nor would a "loss" to the president of Brazil or the prime minister of Spain do much for Mr. Obama's international stature. All of this suggests that Obama should have left well enough alone and stayed at home.

More to come. 

Last year, Passport made the case for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hosting the 2016 Olympics over closest rivals Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid.

Today, one Chicago website is making that same case.

"It would be exciting to host the Olympics here in Chicago," ChicagoansforRio.com says. "But you know what would be even better? Rio de Janeiro. Just let Rio host the 2016 Olympics. We don't mind. Honest."

Just eight days until the announcement of the winner, Chicagoans for Rio break down some reasons Brazil would host the games better. For instance: 

Statues. Rio has Christ standing. Chicago has Lincoln sitting. (To be fair, Chicago also has statues of Lincoln standing.)

Signature events. Rio has naked people dancing. Chicago has chubby people eating.

Nickname. Rio is the "Marvelous City." Chicago is the "Second City."

The site also points out Chicago has a budget deficit of nearly $220 million; they claim Rio has a $0 budget deficit because, "If you're a Chicagoan, Rio's budget deficit does not matter."

They also say 21 of Athens' 22 Olympic venues remain unused.

It appears the latest victim of recessionomics is the ambition to host the world's second most important sporting event.

ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images

Last week, I blogged that Andrei Lugovoi, prime suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko murder, is running for mayor of Sochi, the Black Sea resort town that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. [Update: Looks like Lugovoi's out.] But Lugovoi's only one of the 25 fascinating characters (including some Passport favorites) running in what's shaping up to be one of the world's more interesting political contests.

Liberal opposition leader and political sex symbol Boris Nemtsov is running, and got ammonia thrown at him by pro-Kremlin hooligans a few days ago. Ex-KGB oligarch Alexander Lebedev is in the running, as is freemason lodge leader Andrei Bogdanov, who we last met when he was waging a high-profile beef with far-right leader (and Lugovoi's boss) Vladimir Zhirinovsky during his highly suspicious presidential run.

But there's more! Former Bolshoi ballerina Anastasia Volochkova is running, as is porn star Yelena Berkova, and local wrestling promoter Stanislav Koretsky. Then, of course, there's the guy who will most likely win, Anatoly Pakhomov from Vladimir Putin's United Russia Party.

A lot of these candidates have fairly minimal connections to Sochi, which doesn't seem to be a huge problem in Russian politics. Though the Communist Party's candidate did gripe about Lugovoi, "Maybe he vacationed here once.”

So why does every egomaniac in Russia want to be mayor of Sochi all of a sudden? First, the upcoming Olympics makes the race a perfect opportunity for self-promotion. Second, for the slightly more serious candidates, a recent upset in Murmansk, where a United Russia incumbent was defeated in a mayor's race by an independent candidate, has the Russian opposition sensing blood in the water. 

Has the financial crisis broken United Russia's seemingly invincible grip on Russia's regional politics? Let the games begin.

Photos: Getty Images

It looks like the Sochi games might be a somewhat more modest affair than planned:

The 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi will cost 15 percent less than originally anticipated as initial budget estimates exaggerated the projected cost, a top official said on Tuesday. [...]

Russian officials have warned that the country's budget deficit could reach around 8 percent of GDP in 2009. A deputy minister warned on Tuesday the economy would contract by 2.2 percent in 2009.

Yet to conduct the sports event on the balmy Black Sea coast, Russia needs to spend lavishly on upgrading Soviet-era infrastructure and building new facilities in the hitherto quiet mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana.

The report said local authorities were recently forced to extend tender deadlines for Olympic-related construction contracts due to lack of interest from companies hit by financial difficulties.

Authorities also faced mounting difficulty in acquiring land necessary for construction of Olympic infrastructure in the southern Russian city of Sochi because owners were refusing to sell at prices offered by the government.

Doesn't seem very encouraging. But given all the ink and pixels that were spilled (including by some of us here) predicting that air pollution and protests would turn the Beijing Games into an embarassing catastrophe for China, I'd be cautious about predicting doom for Sochi quite yet.

ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images

Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images

You've got to hand it to the Chinese. They know how to put on a show, as the world saw during the opening of the Beijing Olympics in August—and today for closing ceremony of the Paralympics.

And the world's media were a pushover audience, according to a new study led by the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland and conducted by the Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change.

How did media cover the Olympics? Overwhelmingly as a sporting event rather than as a political power game. Prior to the Olympics, there was much speculation that the global press would turn the games into an international anti-China campaign—after all there had been extensive coverage of the protests against China's human rights record during the global torch relay and of the rioting in Tibet.

But that all essentially disappeared off the front pages of global newspapers. The brilliantly conceived and staged opening ceremony attracted 'gee-whiz' coverage. The press ignored the attending heads of state—and even, in most instances, the parade of their own countries' athletes—to focus on the new Chinese superpower flexing its muscles with choreographed musicians, lights and fireworks.

The first week of athletic competition was also treated as almost pure spectacle. The reporting—not just of the athletes, but of China—was overwhelmingly either positive or neutral in tone.

Which regions of the world were most favorably disposed towards China? The Arab news outlets were the most positive, followed by other Asian countries (such as India), then Latin America, then Europe and the United States. Which region had the most jaundiced eye? Africa.

The Olympics study also looked at other issues. For example: Were mens' or women's events better covered? The press in the Arab world emphasized the achievements of male athletes and the African media focused on women. The Chinese media offered the most balanced coverage of male and female contestants.

The study, conducted live during the Olympics by faculty and students attending the Salzburg Academy in Salzburg, Austria, looked at the coverage of the first week of the games, from August 8 – 14. Working in their native languages—Afrikaans, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Hindi, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish—the researchers analyzed 68 leading newspapers, in 29 countries, across six continents (click here for the full list of countries).

Susan Moeller is director of ICMPA and associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism and School of Public Policy, University of Maryland, College Park.

Photo by Guang Niu/Getty Images

The Olympic Games may have closed more than two weeks ago, but that doesn't mean the Water Cube and other venues are standing dormant. The Paralympics opened this weekend!

On Sunday, China competed against Britain in five-a-side soccer. For those not familiar with the game, each team has five players on the field -- all of whom are blind or visually impaired, with the exception of the goalkeeper, who may be sighted. All except the goalkeepers wear eyeshades to ensure fairness. The ball makes a noise when it moves, and each team has a guide behind the opponent's goal to direct players. The field is surrounded by walls, so there are no throw-ins.

Here, David Clarke of Britain (in white) and Chen Shanyong (#3, at right) fight for the ball. China ended up winning 3-0.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Boris Johnson may have ruffled some feathers in Beijing by declaring London the "sporting capital of the world" and boasting about Britain inventing ping pong. But the London mayor still had some kind words for China after his Olympic visit.

Chinese bloggers and members of the Chinese media, on the other hand, did not take kindly to the performance of Britain -- and Johnson in particular -- during the Olympic changeover ceremony. One blogger blasted Johnson for not buttoning his suit jacket, while another said the mayor appeared "rude and arrogant" while interacting with his counterpart from Beijing. 

Some of the harshest words, however, were reserved for Jimmy Page and David Beckham:

Unfortunately, the singer and Jimmy Page are absolutely not famous enough to be known or recognised by millions of the Chinese audiences. As for David Beckham, he was supposed to kick the football towards the red circle in the centre of the Bird's Nest, in the end, just like any of his penalties at a football match, he totally missed it. 

Ouch. The Brits may not be rallying for Chinese press freedom anytime soon.

BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images

Remember Angel Matos, the Cuban Olympic martial artist who kicked a referee in the face after he was disqualified from a bronze-medal taekwondo match? According to Fidel Castro, he was totally justified since the match was obviously fixed:

"They had tried to buy his own coach," Castro wrote in his essay, published in state media. "He could not contain himself."

Cuba is accustomed to winning gold in boxing, but settled this year for four silver and four bronze medals. Overall, Cuba took home only two gold medals, down from nine in Athens four years ago.

"I saw when the judges blatantly stole fights from two Cuban boxers in the semi-finals," Castro wrote. "Our fighters ... had hopes of winning, despite the judges, but it was useless. They were condemned beforehand."

After their ejection, Matos's coach alleged that he had been offered a bribe before the match by their Kazakh opponents.

Castro vowed big changes for Cuban sports in the four years in order to counter the "European chauvinism, judge corruption, buying of brawn and brains...and a strong dose of racism" that they were sure to encounter in 2012.

I never like to tell a fellow blogger what he should be writing about, but it seems to me that Castro would better serve Cuban sports by praising an exceptional Cuban athlete like hurdler Dayron Robles, who turned in one of Beijing's more dominating performances, rather than sticking up for an unprofessional bully like Matos.