FlagAndMap Weblog

The 2012 Summer Olympic Games being held in London are finally upon us. After a unique and entertaining opening ceremony the athletes now get the chance to reap the reward of years of training by participating in and perhaps excelling in the greatest multinational sporting event of all. FlagAndMap applauds all participants and congratulates the medal winners. At the same time we will have a little fun by trying to determine which nation might be said to be performing best given a level playing field – by which we mean after adjustment is made for the differing resources they have at their disposal. This is achieved by assessing the value of medals won and adjusting that value according to national GDP. We’ll skip the details and merely note that our algorithm is designed to minimize the spread of results and maximize the number of nations that have a chance of winning.

It’s early days yet so our 2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Performance Ranking is looking a little lean but already we can see the benefit of a more level playing field. China’s early haul of 4 golds is impressive but Italy places above them with only 2 golds by virtue of being a smaller nation with a lower overall GDP, yet they in turn are pipped by even less wealthy Kazakhstan thanks to Vinokourov’s gold in the cycling road race. We’ll be updating this table at the end of every day so check in again to see how your country is performing.

August is a popular month for independence days – summer must be a good time for uprisings. Chad celebrates its independence on August 11th, commemorating independence from France, which was gained in 1960. However, instability has characterized much of the period since independence and despite the promise of oil wealth Chadians as yet have little to celebrate. Show support for Chad on August 11th by wearing your own customized version of one of our Chad Flag and Map T-Shirts.

Other notable national days in August are listed below.
Aug 1: Independence Day in Benin and National Day in Switzerland
Aug 5: Independence Day in Burkina Faso
Aug 6: Independence Day in Bolivia
Aug 7: Independence Day in Cote d’Ivoire
Aug 9: National Day in Singapore
Aug 10: Independence Day in Ecuador
Aug 11: Independence Day in Chad
Aug 14: Independence Day in Pakistan
Aug 15: Independence Day in Congo-Brazzaville, National Day in Liechtenstein and South Korea and Independence Day in India
Aug 16: Restoration Day in the Dominican Republic
Aug 17: Independence Day in Gabon and Indonesia
Aug 19: National Day in Afghanistan
Aug 20: St. Stephen’s Day in Hungary
Aug 24: Independence Day in Ukraine
Aug 25: Independence Day in Uruguay
Aug 27: Independence Day in Moldova
Aug 29: National Uprising Day in Slovakia
Aug 30: Constitution Day in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Aug 31: Hari Merdeka in Malaysia and Independence Day in Kyrgyzstan and Trinidad and Tobago