08.14.2012

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On selling fencing, archery

BuckBokai will soon have something about the effect of at least three heroic figures in contemporary pop culture – led by the great science-fiction sports hero Katniss Everdeen – on a new wave of popularity affecting the sport of archery, but for today here’s something off the wire about archery and other Olympic sports, particularly fencing. How can these fringe pastimes survive without the multimillion-dollar budgets of major team sports? Read on for more about “inspiring a generation” to fence beyond the 2012 Olympics – and how Mark Zuckerberg is key to the plan…

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08.07.2012

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Usain Bolt rips through time, destroys 116 years’ worth of Olympians

Usain Bolt’s got everyone thinking his speed on an equivalent level to the Flash, but could he really break the time barrier?

Okay, probably not even the real-life Fastest Man Alive is quite ready to shred the laws of physics, but some folks over at the New York Times have given us the next best thing, bringing together 85 medalists in the 100 meters from Olympics dating back to 1896. In an “interactive” display, the NYT shows us – all things considered equal and with no calculations made for, say, Archie Hahn of 1912 training with modern technology – by how much Bolt would have kicked butt against the likes of Jessie Owens, Carl Lewis and Harrison Dillard.

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07.30.2012

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For the glory of Empire: Reviewing Mike Resnick’s “The Olympians”

With the XXX Olympiad currently in full swing, BuckBokai today pimps a favorite science-fiction sport story, Mike Resnick’s “The Olympians.”

Celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2012, “The Olympians” serves as the seventh chapter in Resnick’s Birthright: The Book of Man. Resnick’s résumé in science-fiction writing and editing is way too long to detail in this space, but BuckBokai lists Birthright alongside the utterly awesome Alternate Presidents (Alternate Anthologies) as among the more treasured sci-fi compendia.

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