the buzz log
Olympic Buzz Bursts: Ordinary Citizens
The Middle Kingdom is about to throw open its gates to the outside world, but many still have questions about the nation's policies. What do ordinary citizens think? The BBC radio program, "World Have Your Say," features a few Chinese countrymen (and countrywomen, for that matter) who take on questions from around the globe. In this engagng format, they give their input about the one-child policy, put into relative terms how much money Tibet gets versus the average Chinese citizen, and give some history lessons on Taiwan. Listen to the exchange by checking the broadcast or podcast.
Olympic Training for Couch Potatoes
Can you handle more than 3,600 hours of Games of the XXIX Olympiad? You don't even have to cut caffeine and get pedicures, as some Olympiad hopefuls have done. Instead, oil up the remote control and the mouse, and try these sit-down techniques instead.
Learn your numbers. Not just the stats: XXIX means 29, but 8/8/8 means luck tripled in Chinese (the number 8 is a homonyn for the word "prosperity").Practice staring. Don't miss the action. The difference between gold and silver can be measured by a 1,000th of a second, which How Stuff Works says says is 40 times faster than an eye blink.
Visualize the surroundings. Understanding an event's setting may give you an advantage. Try scanning the BBC Sport map.
Tune in. Pump yourself up by listening to the Olympic songs... all of them.
Memorize all 596 American athletes. From the track-and-field competitors to the team members of soccer, volleyball, and B-ball.
Focus on lesser sports. Everyone else will be watching to see if swimmer Natalie Coughlin gets her fifth gold medal, or if gymnast Morgan Hamm will keep clean. Instead, look for underdogs in events like kayaking, table tennis, or fencing.Learn to talk big. If you can't memorize the athletes, talk about grand visions, like the boxing's great reform, America's immigrant athletes, Olympic artistry, environmental algae monsters, and if a Chinese tactical force can possibly look intimidating riding Segways.
Dress the part. What's the point of being a capitalist if you can't buy Olympic spirit? Pay $2,000 for an official torch, or $38.20 for a Speedo Team USA brief. If you get the swim trunks, don't forget to make that Brazilian wax appointment.
What People Want to Know About Tiger Woods
No matter how Tiger Woods fares in today's U.S. Open playoffs, he will come out on top with searchers.
Something about the golf icon—his tremendous athletic skill, his background, his family, his smile, a magic combination of all of the above—excites an astonishing amount of buzz every time he swings a driver or makes a real estate purchase.
Since the competition at Torrey Pines began, we've logged a surge in sports lookups like "tiger woods u.s. open," "tiger woods tee time," and "tiger woods caddie." However, the bulk of the Woods-related queries have focused on the golfing legend himself. Here are the top 20 non-golf things people wanted to know yesterday about Tiger Woods...
Filed under: Sports, Golf, Tiger Woods
(Book) Spine Chillin'
A Bond reborn, a White House exposé, and rhymes about eating bugs. The next best thing to reading good books is recommending them. Outlets like NPR have posted their summer literary shopping lists, and USA Today provides a helpful guide, noting new titles' release dates. While the Washington Post released its mix of critical and readers' favorites after Memorial Day, Salon drags out the pleasure with a weekly dip into the juiciest summer passages. Most recently—literary responses to "Sex and the City."
Political tell-alls are hot again, as publishers who rejected former White House press secretary Scott McClellan's (sold-out) memoir now see. Other revelatory reading includes a former high-level commander who gives the military lowdown in Iraq. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Chronicle aims for closure with the 'Good Riddance Lit' round-up devoted to the lame-duck president, including the night-time reader "Goodnight Bush."
In the fiction category, many critics agree on a fictional imagining of Nikolas Tesla in "The Invention of Everything Else," and Samantha Hunt (among others authors), reads a snippet from her work in NPR's fiction addict round-up. Sports lovers can get a wincing look into how female physiology may explain higher rates of injuries in "Warrior Girls." The New York Times compiles a wistful reading list that brings back the heyday of America's vehicular culture. Reviews have been mixed for Sebastian Faulk's "Devil May Care" redux of spy James Bond, but read an excerpt and judge for yourself.
Not enough hours to stay lit? Die-hard readers can sneak in a few pages right under the boss' nose with a program that disguises the classics as Powerpoint presentations. The drama need never end.
As for what readers have been seeking out in new titles, below are the top "book" searches from the past 30 days.
- James Patterson Book ("Sail," June 9 release date)
- Scott McClellan Book ("What Happened," May 28)
- Barbara Walters Book ("Audition: A Memoir," May 6)
- Meg Wolitzer Book 2008 ("The Ten-Year Nap," March 27)
- "Hello Cupcake" Book (April 24)
- "Millionaire by 30" Book (April 30)
- "Quantum Wellness" Book (May 20)
- Terrance Dean Book ("Hiding in Hip Hop," May 13)
- "The Grandmother" Book (March 1)
- Randy Pausch Last Lecture Book ("The Last Lecture," April 8)
May 2008 Buzz: Top Searches
Tragedy struck this May after a cyclone devastated Myanmar and an earthquake killed thousands in China. In the political realm, primaries continued to dominate online searches, but the diagnosis of Senator Ted Kennedy's brain tumor made the statesman one of the most queried Democrats of the month. These stories and many others reverberated through Search.
Unnatural Disasters
The number of casualties is still unknown in Myanmar, but the cyclone itself and the junta's role spurred readers to dig deeper into the story. The evolving story in China, on the other hand, sparked similar map lookups but also had readers monitoring the aftershocks, the country's endangered dams and bridges, relief funds, the country's one-child policy, and Sharon Stone's regretful comments.
Two Degrees of "Idol"
Date an Idol, revive a flagging career. Among the television finales firing up searches, "American Idol" climbed past Miley Cyrus and the IRS to make the top 20 searches. David Cook won (as early Buzz Log numbers projected), and took his newfound cred to ask out season 2 competitor and TV Guide Network talk show host Kimberly Caldwell, setting off a domino search explosion for the peroxide blonde.
Scant weeks after Mariah Carey's "Idol" mentorship, the singer hitched with Nick Cannon and provoked for look-ups for her nuptials, age, bio, wedding pictures, and her rock.
Track Records
The fabled tradition of the Kentucky Derby took a grisly turn when downed horse Eight Belles had to be put down. The winner of that race, Big Brown, however turned the conversation to a Triple Crown contention when he won the Preakness 2008.
As women like Danica Patrick and Gina Carano make Search headway, NCAA softball has also seen a 12% increase in searches compared to this same time last year.
Other newsmakers among the fastest moving searches in May…
- …The Samsung Glyde, another attempt to slay the iPhone, gets techies looking but scores a "meh" from the critics.
- …Is honoring Mom becoming perfunctory? Searches for "mother's day" have dropped 20% since last year. Unless the online "Grand Theft Auto IV" hysteria was really just gift shopping for mom...
- … "Iron Man" still holds the lead in 2008 box office receipts and searches, and gave its Robert Downey, Jr. redemption and perhaps closer to his onscreen persona's wealth... at least, if he did his royalties right.
Filed under: Sports, Disasters, Movies, Monthly Wrapup, Recaps, Wrap Up
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nidal Malik Hasan | Breakout! |
| 2 | Fort Hood Shooting | Breakout! |
| 3 | Tyrannosaurus Rex | Breakout! |
| 4 | Fort Hood | 43518% |
| 5 | Tropical Storm Ida | 4377% |
| 6 | Willie Aames | 3325% |
| 7 | Shannon Dedrick | 3299% |
| 8 | Gretchen Rossi | 2702% |
| 9 | Epic Mickey | 2583% |
| 10 | Lee Harvey Oswald | 1907% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | +194 | 207 |
| 2 | Fort Hood | +185 | 185 |
| 3 | Angelina Jolie | +114 | 164 |
| 4 | Rihanna | +39 | 157 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | +54 | 154 |
| 6 | Alicia Keys | +139 | 153 |
| 7 | +1 | 153 | |
| 8 | NFL | +6 | 138 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.