Andrea Nott, Christina Jones - the US duet synchro team.

Synchronized swimming starts today and will air on the Oxygen network. Synchronized swimming, as I found out after interviewing Cheryl Furjanic, director of Sync or Swim, is without a doubt one of the most mezmorizing, as well as athletically challenging events that the Olympics has to offer.

The ladies team from Spain, who finished 4th in both team and duet synchro last year, thought they had a way to edge out their thought competition this go around - super sparkly swimsuits that have water-proof lights embedded in them!

As it turns out, the suits will provide no such advantage and actually were banned from being used in the competition. Ahh well ladies - the swimming it seems will have to speak for itself. And to watch that swimming (which starts being aired tonight) check out the schedule after the jump (along with a video of 2004’s bronze winning duet performance from the US).

And be sure to takepart to learn more about this years US Synchro team and to support some awesome ladies.

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The Olympics give us a great opportunity to learn about different countries in a non-judgmental way. The camaraderie between the athletes and those watching allows us to appreciate our worldly neighbors instead of only focusing on the politics of it all - which of course the people very little say in. Likewise, cinema allows us to learn about different countries in respectful ways, especially when the film focuses on the people and not the government. It is with that I decided to do a small series of foreign film recommendations based on celebrating the Olympic spirit and learning about the rest of the world with an open mind.

Today I give you a film from our Olympic host China. In the past weeks the focus on China has had to do with pollution, dirty politics in Darfur and their underage gymnasts. And while all of those things are supremely important, there is an entire country of people who have nothing to do with those issues outside of their personal carbon footprints.

One filmmaker that always does an amazing job of capturing the lives of everyday Chinese citizens is Jia Zhangke. He always manages to portray the important issues of the day but still make clear the individuals struggles people face.

Olympic Film Recommendation : CHINA

Jia Zhangke’s The World

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So I’m not a big fan of promoting commercials, but I’ve been suffering through a lot of bad ones during these Olympics (this is Budweiser, this is beer??!! - please) and I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the better ones.

Plus, I’ll be honest - it’s late Friday afternoon and I’m not having the best blogging focus. So enjoy your weekend and enjoy the videos below. Also, be sure to continue to takepart and support the alternative Olympics while you support the real ones.

This is just beautiful (you should really see it in high quality)

More after the jump

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I didn’t think Bela Karolyi could get any cooler, but then I found this video about his famous ranch - home to the US Women’s Gymnastics Team and he and his wife Marta. Not only is there a top notch gymnastics facility, get this - Bela has horses, goats and CAMELS at his ranch.

Check out the video below for the amazing ranch visuals and interviews with the new gold medalist Natsia Liukin and silver medalist Shawn Johnson:

And speaking of last night’s gymnastics -did anyone else think that Russian Anna Pavlova’s floor routine was out of the world?

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Seriously, I love Bela Karolyi and given the nature of NBC to only broadcast the efforts of the American athletes, I’m finding the Olympics a lot less exciting this go around, especially when it comes to gymnastics. I remember being a kid and sitting tight for the night and watching all the gymnasts perform and getting to see the different scores each judge from each country gave. Not so these days. And even worse, when we don’t win, we don’t get to see the winner take the podium. If I have watched an entire event, I want to see the winner, regardless of where they’re from, listen to their national anthem with a gold medal around their neck.

But I digress, Bela is the reason for this post. His gymnastics discussions with Bob Costas are pretty great. Not only is he one of the only talking heads that genuinely seems to be excited, he also says it like it is. For an example, watch this classic Bela clip from Olympics past below:

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Abhinav Bindra is why I love the Olympics. I should probably first explain that my favorite part of the games has always been the parade of nations. Seeing all the different countries, many that we seldom hear of, walking proudly in support of their people is a pretty amazing thing. The sad part about the parade of nations is that, as the annoying announcers told me 50+ times on Friday night, most of teams have not and will never win a medal.

And while Bindra’s team of India has won medals, they’ve never won an individual gold. That all changed this morning when Abhinav Bindra won the gold medal in the men’s 10- meter air rifle event and India’s national anthem played for all to hear.

More than that, he wasn’t the favorite to win by a longshot:

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Olympics Olympics Olympics! We love the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between when it comes to the 2008 Beijing Olympics here at TakePart.   It’s reason enough not to miss our Top 10 Stories about the Olympic Games, which we’ve been reporting on in the months leading up to now. Catch the best in TakePart Olympic news below:

1) 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Will Create 11 Million Pounds of CO2 by Nicole Hughes

The 2008 Olympic torch relay hasn’t galvanized a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and hand holding this year. Opposition to China’s treatment of Tibet has inspired international protests, with some dissenters even managing to snuff out the torch and delay the tour… [click here for the full story]

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

35 Million Tons of Toxic Stew by Wendy Cohen

“Waterboard Thrill Ride” Opens At Coney Island by Blair Golson

* * *

Nicole Hughes:

Green Summer Music Tours Not To Be Missed

Eat Your Veggies: Quit Composting in the Fridge

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Andy Kondrat:

Almost Half of Earth’s Primates In Danger of Extinction

Beijing’s Pollution Not Gone, Just Moved Outside of Town

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Jon Popham:

GOP: Drill More Oil Or We’ll Shut Down the Government

Global Warming’s “Sausage Fest” Effect

* * *

Gina Telaroli:

Olympic Flag Bearer for the US: A Champion of  Darfur

Time to Act: Sexual Assault and Women in the Military

You may have noticed quite a bit of information flowing from this website concerning the city of Beijing and the problem of pollution leading up to the Olympic Games, but by no means is this problem limited to China’s capital city. As the city itself has been working to clear the air around the area the games will be held, high-polluting factories haven’t simply shut down around Beijing - they’ve been moved to outlying regions.

The Washington Post reports that when China was given the Summer Games back in 2001, the government immediately went to work reducing pollution around Beijing. But the main goal, it seems, has not been to reduce pollution around the country. One such example from the article:

As recently as five years ago, [one] region about 125 miles east of Beijing was a resort, and its sea overflowed with pike, flounder and carp. Now there are few fish, and it’s a rare day when Zhang, 53, can see the sun through the smoke. She can tell the direction of the winds from the color of the soot blowing by her home. The gray iron deposits come from the southern steel mills, while the white powder comes from chemical factories, and black dust from coal and coking plants.

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The Olympic Games start tomorrow, and though China has made concerted efforts to cut pollution down before the games begin, today the residents of Beijing woke up to a “white smog,” a phenomenon occurring when pollution is so thick that a skyline is virtually invisible.

How thick is a white smog, you ask? ABC (this is the Australian one, not the Disney one) puts it pretty well as such: “The smog is so thick that passers-by on the streets fail to cast shadows.” Gross. But if rain does hit Beijing tomorrow afternoon, as forecasted, the smog may dissipate prior to the Opening Ceremonies.

Way before this development, the pollution had already become such an issue some athletes had decided not to compete for health reasons. And this isn’t really helping any. At this point, though, it’s up to nature to hopefully lend a helping hand so that the events can proceed unhindered. As it’s not so likely you can take action to help unpollute Beijing before the Opening Ceremony, instead you can takepart here to see fifty ways you can reduce your own pollution output.