The 2008 Olympics boast some 10,500 athletes from 204 countries. China has been planning for this moment since 1993, when it was passed over in favor of Sydney for the 2000 games. The opening ceremony paid homage to China's great inventions--gunpowder, paper, movable type and the compass.
http://www.mercurynews.com/othersports/ci_10148682

Follow the Olympics with complete coverage from The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/olympics2008/index.html

Americans Made Over 1 Billion Hospital and Doctor Visits in 2006
News release: Patients in the United States made an estimated 1.1 billion visits to physician offices and hospital outpatient and emergency departments in 2006, an average of four visits per person per year, according to new health care statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data come from various components of CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics National Health Care Survey and are featured in a series of new National Health Statistics Report.

Federal Study of Environmental Hazards in the Eight Great Lakes States
Researchers found low birth weights, elevated rates of infant mortality and premature births, and elevated death rates from breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancer. The 400-plus-page study, Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-
Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern, was undertaken by a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the request of the International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of boundary waters between the two countries. The study was originally scheduled for release in July 2007 by the IJC and the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
Executive Summary
Introduction
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Conclusions

Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
(to, too, two//bear,bare//yolk.yoke//their/there/they’re//principal,principle//capital,capitol)
Games, activities and lists are at link provided by eMINTS National Center, a non-profit, independent business unit of the University of Missouri.
http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001152.shtml

loquacious (lo-KWAY-shuhs)
adjective: Talkative; wordy.
From Latin loqui (to speak). The word loquacious has a negative sense, but a positive word to come out of the same Latin root is eloquent.
A.Word.A.Day

On August 9, 1854, Henry David Thoreau published Walden; or, Life in the Woods. The first edition was 2,000 copies, and it took five years to sell them off.
August 9 is the birthday of P(amela) L(yndon) Travers, the penname of Helen Lyndon Goff, (books by this author) born in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia (1899). P.L. Travers is famous as the author of Mary Poppins. In her 20s, she moved to Dublin and created the character for her own amusement, a prim, somewhat ill-humored, magical British nanny who appears at a household in a high wind and floats away when the wind changes. Mary Poppins came out in 1934. It was a big success in Britain and the U.S., and P.L. Travers wrote seven sequels.
August 10 is the birthday of one of Brazil's best-loved writers: Jorge Amado, (books by this author) born near Ilhéus, Brazil (1912). He is one of the most widely translated novelists in the world; they called him the "Pelé of the written word." His 32 books sold millions of copies in 40 languages. Brazilian hotels, bars, and restaurants, as well as brands of whiskey and margarine, were named for characters from his books. He's the author of Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon (1958), Home is the Sailor (1961), and Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1966).
The Writer’s Almanac