Bolt, Lewis, Jordan, Armstrong or Phelps?

Who's the greatest athlete of all time?

Notice that even soccer greats like Pele, Maradona and the Ronal-dos and -dinhos are not on my list, so Tiger Woods is surely a long shot, and I'm not considering Kasparov.

Bolt? Remember this - 9.69, 19.30! No fancy suit, or drag-saving pools.

First to hold gold in 100 and 200 meters since Carl Lewis in 1984 (who also won the long jump and relay). He smashed Michael Johnson's 12-year old 200 meters record in style! And he's apparently clean of drugs too (ironic/sad that that's the first thing that comes to mind these days!)

See the full picture? Look at it again - it is in plain sight - see the space between them all - no hundredth's of a second finish here!

Whats' in a name? How long will it last?

Invisibility Cloak? Check!

Now that scientists have invented invisibility, the only thing left to invent is "Energize" technology (first documented in Star Trek), which will make travel instantaneous and (hopefully) painless. At least you won't have to pay the airlines for water!

Scientists at Berkeley and Duke have been messing with creating the technology for Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloak, and they're knocking on the door (tying the final knot?).

This one is interesting - but most applications that I can think up are sorta "negative", i.e., military, espionage, subterfuge, voyeurism, etc. The one positive one I thought up was entertainment, but that's already been covered by magicians!

Can you think of interesting applications that are positive?

Drama and moviemaking at the Olympics?

If you're among the BILLION people who saw the Olympics opening ceremony, you should be resigned to not seeing a grander one in your lifetime. Why?

It is not just about the planning, or the money spent, or the large number of participants. It is about the combination of all these with a couple of ingredients that only a couple of other countries in the world can provide - deep, rich and varied culture and imagery, and a discipline that is almost impossible to reproduce. Take 2008 performers and ask them to practise more than 8 hours a day for 4 months, and you'll see what I mean.

Of course, they're also spiritual enough to ward off rain!

Now couple all this with a little "creativity". Add a touch of moviemaking to the multimedia, and you have a pretty face with the song, and you can blow away the smog. It has now been revealed that the little girl who "sang" at the ceremony was a face for another voice! And the amazing fireworks footprints we saw thudding to the Birds Nest stadium in high definition were actually...er..."previously recorded animated footage".

All in all - give Beijing an A+ for hard work, national pride, impeccable performances and ....creative moviemaking!

They selected director Zhang Yimou for a reason.