August2012 Archive

2012/09 National Days

2012 Aug 26   category: Latest News   author:  

September 7th is Independence Day in Brazil, commemorating their declaration of independence from Portugal in 1822. Since then Brazil has grown to become almost 20 times more populous and almost 10 times more wealthy than their former colonial rulers. Brazil has a lot to celebrate and you can be sure that they will do it well, so join the party sporting your own personalized version of one of our Brazil Flag and Map T-Shirts.

Other notable national days in September are listed below.
Sep 1: Independence Day in Uzbekistan, National Day in Libya and Constitution Day in Slovakia
Sep 2: National Day in Vietnam
Sep 6: Independence Day in Swaziland
Sep 7: Independence Day in Brazil
Sep 8: Independence Day in Macedonia, National Day in North Korea and Our Lady of Meritxell Day in Andorra
Sep 9: Independence Day in Tajikistan
Sep 12: National Day in Cape Verde
Sep 15: Independence Day in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua
Sep 16: Grito de Dolores in Mexico and Independence Day in Papua New Guinea
Sep 18: National Day in Chile
Sep 19: Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis
Sep 21: Independence Day in Malta and Belize
Sep 22: National Day in Mali
Sep 23: National Day in Saudi Arabia
Sep 24: Independence Day in Guinea-Bissau
Sep 30: Independence Day in Botswana

2012 Olympics: Final GDP Adjusted Medals Ranking

2012 Aug 13   category: World Affairs   author:  

It’s been a magnificent 2 weeks of sport, efficiently organized, well supported and highly competitive. Congratulations to all those involved in the London 2012 Olympics. Regarding our modest effort to add to the fun, the final standings are now available in our 2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Medals Table. Just as they did in 2008, Jamaica win by a comfortable margin. Grenada won just one medal, but it was gold and from such a low GDP base that’s enough to place them second. In third place, with a remarkable host nation effort, are Great Britain. Russia should probably beat Great Britain on raw medals value but they have a higher GDP and so take fourth place in our ranking. Meanwhile the two great rivals for supremacy in the standard table, China and the USA, lie 14th and 15th respectively, with China outdoing the USA by just two ranking points. In other rivalries congratulations go to New Zealand for beating Australia, Germany for beating France and North Korea for beating South Korea. Check out the complete ranking to see how your nation fared. It’s been fun and we look foward to trying to level the playing field yet again for the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow.

2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Medals Table Update

2012 Aug 09   category: World Affairs   author:  

We’re approaching the finishing line of the London 2012 Olympics and the race for top spot in our 2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Medals Ranking is going down to the wire. A single gold by the small nation of Grenada was sufficient to propel them into first place yesterday but today they have been overtaken by Jamaica with 3 golds, 3 silvers and 3 bronzes. Jamaica came top of the 2008 Olympics GDP Adjusted Ranking and it looks like they will be tough to beat this time too. Meanwhile, there are gripping contests lower down the ranking as well. Hungary moves into 3rd place with a very creditable 15 medals, of which 8 are gold. The hosts, Great Britain, hang on to 4th place, while other large nations are finally starting to move up – China 6th, Russia 7th and the USA 9th.

2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Medals Table Update

2012 Aug 05   category: World Affairs   author:  

There’s been lots of movement in recent days in our 2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Performance Ranking with Great Britain finally demonstrating host nation advantage, reaching second place in the rankings by the end of yesterday. North Korea however, in top spot from the first day courtesy of 3 weightlifting golds, has been hard to dislodge owing to their very low GDP. Today however, another contender emerged as Jamaica sprinted up the table to snatch second place. Kazakhstan, currently in 4th place, continue to perform well with the remarkable distinction that all of the 6 medals they have won have been gold! While little separates China and the USA as they contend to head the traditional medals table, it will be hard for the latter to surpass the former if adjustment is made for GDP (they lie 5th and 9th respectively in our adjusted ranking).

2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Medals Table Update

2012 Aug 01   category: World Affairs   author:  

North Korea seems to have taken an unassailable lead in our 2012 Olympics GDP Adjusted Performance Ranking. Their haul of 4 golds and 1 bronze is punching well above their GDP weight, which is perhaps a consequence of their alternative economic model. Meanwhile the race for second place is much tighter with Kazakhstan, Georgia and China all with 81 ranking points. Great Britain picked up a nice cluster of medals today but it merely served to move them up from 27th to 20th. We might expect the host nation to do rather better on a level playing field but it is early days yet.