First look at the Beijing Olympic Medals

Designed by professor Xiao Yong and a group of Chinese students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, there's a ring of jade inlaid into each medal.

The calm before the storm

A great photo set at Boston.com documenting final preparations for the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. The efforts China has made seem to be a metaphor for the state of the country, the overpowering scale of government owned buildings against that of human workers, the whitewashing and covering up of anything they don't want us to see, the temporary environmental concerns, etc. etc. Both sad and beautiful at the same time.

Summer of the Monkey

GORILLAZ members Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn have come together once again to create an AMAZING animation sequence based on the story Journey to the West, a legendary Chinese novel from the late 1500s, to build anticipation for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. In the new animated spot, says Hewlett, “the idea is that you tell the entire story of Journey to the West in a two-minute opening sequence, which is basically them on their way to the Olympic stadium…this is going to be the summer of Monkey.”