Now that the Olympics are over, with Canada’s heart-wrenching hockey defeat of Team USA, 3-2 in overtime, it’s time to watch real television again.

There’s a mixed bag of premieres tonight. CBS has “Rules of Engagement” at 8:30, while G4 has “The International Sexy Ladies Show” starting up at 8. TLC has “Our Little Life” at 8.

Of course, the big one, is “The Tonight Show with JAY LENO” at 11:35 p.m. on NBC.

And if you’re gunning for a finale, you have “The Bachelor” on ABC at 8.

Reports indicate that Janeane Garofalo is being tapped for a new CBS medical drama.

NBC will give “Last Comic Standing” a seventh season. Craig Robinson (Darryl on “The Office”) will host.

Acting vets Dennis Farina (Law and Order) and John Ortiz will appear together in “Luck,” the pilot for the new HBO horse-racing and gambling drama from Michael Mann and David Milch.

TORONTO — The opening ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic games was at times breathtaking, and at other times, just weird.

Let’s be nice and go over the breathtaking first. Sarah McLachlan and k.d. Lang sang wonderfully. The actual lighting of the Olympic cauldron was inspired, as three Canadian heroes got to participate instead of the traditional one, including Rick Hansen, who IS a national icon.

Oh, and when those cartoon whales swam across the floor and began to spout water, that was neat.

But a lot of this ceremony, which was so heavily anticipated after Beijing’s opener, did not represent Canadian culture. That wasn’t Canada.

I can’t comment on whether the Aboriginal peoples of this country were done justice during the ceremony last night, but I do find it strange that we so glamorously portray their culture on a world stage, even when they are treated so poorly at home. That can’t be fair.

Don’t get me wrong. Aboriginal culture is beautiful and interesting, but Canada is definitely not a land of ice, snow and people dancing beneath giant trees and totem poles. We’ve a rich multicultural society that inhabits a a few vibrant cosmopolitan centres and cities in between, many of whom have successfully intertwined their ancestral cultural values with Canada’s light cultural values. That’s what Canada is; a mosaic. That’s what we should’ve seen last night.

And the clich©s! The mounties, the icy, barren landscape, Nelly Furtado in a tight dress. It was all embarassingly there. We perpetuated many stereotypes last night. Especially when VANOC’s speaker spoke after Jacques Rogge. He almost put me to sleep, just like those kind, timid and shy Canadians tend to do.

Oh, and that terrifying Coca-Cola bear that emerged from the ground, that wasn’t a clich©, but it was creepy.

And then finally, at the last moment, when The Great One and his fellow all-star Canadians were all set to light the flame, technology bitch slapped us. We waited and waited. Even Gretzky looked pissed for a second.

Then finally, the cauldron emerged, in all its glory, and was lit by three Canadian heroes. Then Gretzky ran outside to light the outdoor flame, and received the wonderful treatment Canada allots to all of its national icons. He rode on the back of a truck while it rained on his face. Nice.

But world, don’t take that image of Canada home with you. It isn’t what life is like here. We don’t all live in the Arctic circle among the Orcas and the ice floes.

But we do rule the Winter Olympics. So look out.

Tonight is the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics at 7:30 p.m. on NBC. The Olympiad will be the only concern on television for much of the rest of the month.

If you have no interest in winter sports, you can check out “Famous Crime Scene” on VH1 at 9 p.m., which premieres tonight also. CBS has “The Amazing Race” premiering a new season on Sunday at 8 p.m. HBO has “How to Many It in America” at 10, and VH1 has “Tool Academy” premiering at 9.

The high school football drama “Friday Night Lights” will end after five seasons. The satellite-exclusive show just ended up its fourth season, which will finally air on NBC starting April 30. Season five is in production and will air on DirecTV in the fall.

Here’s this weekend’s Olympic schedule:

Saturday:
NBC: 2-6 p.m. – Ski Jumping, Speed Skating, Biathlon
NBC: 8-11 p.m. – Speed Skating Short Track, Alpine Men’s Downhill, Women’s Moguls
CNBC: 3-5:30 p.m. and 8-10:30 p.m. – Women’s Hockey
Universal Sports: 12:30-3 p.m. – Highlights

Sunday:
NBC: 12-4:30 a.m. – Luge, Primetime Replay
NBC: 1-6 p.m. – Nordic Combined, Speed Skating, Luge, Biathlon
NBC: 7-11 p.m. – Women’s Combined, Figure Skating
NBC: 11:30 p.m. to midnight – Late Night Recap
USA: 3-530 p.m. – Women’s Hockey
MSNBC: 3 a.m. – 5:30 a.m. – Women’s Hockey
CNBC: 7:30-10 p.m. – Women’s Hockey
Universal Sports: 10 a.m. to noon – Highlights

Former Olympian and 2012 Olympic hopeful Logan Campbell can’t afford to fund his own training. Tired of seeking cash from his parents, the 23-year-old New Zealander decided to venture into entrepreneurship.

He, in partnership with a 20-year-old accountant, opened a 14-room brothel in his homeland, which decriminalized prostitution in 2003. Campbell’s “gentleman’s club” will ultimately make him the money he needs to fund his training, however, New Zealand Olympic officials say that his business venture could work against him when applying to be a 2012 team member.

“Selection takes into account not just performance but also the athlete’s ability to serve as an example to the youth of the country,” funding manager John Schofield told New Zealand’s Sunday Star Times newspaper.

Campbell says his mother didn’t initially approve of the idea, however, decided to go along with it after meeting with some of the whores fine young women.

Campbell will work as a full-time pimp “escort agency” owner ‚ until 2011. He’ll then hit the gyms for a full year before the 2012 games.

Beijing 2008

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Campbell, who competes in Tae Kwon Do, made the Top 16 before losing to Sung Yu-Chi of Taiwan, who eventually went on to win the bronze.

Leading up to those games Campbell’s parents were the ones who footed his $95,000 training bills.

This time, that bill will go to the lonely men of New Zealand. Campbell hopes the brothel will help him raise double the amount needed to train for the 2008 Olympics.

At least the customers will feel like they are doing a good deed.

Ismail Ahmed Ismail, an 800 meter sprinter, won Sudan’s first ever Olympic medal during this summer’s games in Beijing.

The victory shines a positive ray of hope upon the ruins of a region dominated by corruption, death and destruction. In Sudan, the media, as of late, has focused mainly on the situation in Darfur and the recent criminal charges made against the country’s president, Omar al-Bashir.

Ever since Ismail’s silver medal performance, the country’s newspapers, on both ends of the political spectrum, have applauded and praised his performance as that of a national hero.

The people of Sudan have long been searching for something to distract them from the situation that surrounds them, the despondency that lurks behind every turn and greets them everywhere they go. To have Ismail perform at his best during the Olympics, the largest and most prestigious sporting event in the world, seems only too good to be true.

Hopefully this marks a turning point for Sudan, it’s doubtful this will have any effect on politics, however, it certainly is a symbol of a brighter, shinier future.

Ismail’s medal allows the world to glimpse inside the other side of Sudanese life; the nation’s reaction reinforces the fact that, like every other country, the citizens hope and dream that their athletes will represent well at the Olympics and bring home some hardware.

It’s nice to have a positive news story come out of a region where 2.5 million have been displaced and up to 300,000 have reportedly been killed.

Hopefully it’s the beginning of an Olympic future.

There were no sadder sights at the Olympics this year than the faces of the American women’s softball team, losing their heavily favored gold medal to Japan 3-1 Thursday.

Japanese right-hander Yukiko Ueno shut down the powerhouse American offense, handing the girls their first loss in any level of competition since the 2000 Sydney Games.

This comes as both baseball and softball have been cast away from the Summer Games as “too American” by the International Olympic Committee.

This has been a bad Olympics for American women.

The softball team puts a cap on stunning defeats handed down this year. This week, gold medal lock Lolo Jones stumbled out of the medals on her second-to-last hurdle in the women’s 100m after opening up a lead late in the race. In the women’s 400m, American favorite Sanya Richards’ hamstring ran out of gas, putting her from first to third quickly.

In gymnastics, Alicia Sacramone fell off the balance beam and three of the girls stepped out of bounds on the floor routines in the second place loss to the Chinese. Sacramone then got ripped off in the vault after a very questionable call to give the bronze to China’s Cheng Fei, even though Fei fell on her second run and Sacramone landed both of hers.

Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor couldn’t be stopped in beach volleyball, however. On a rainy day, they beat the Chinese 21-18, 21-18 for the gold. The women’s basketball and soccer teams remain on top of their games and will play for the gold next. Update: The USA women’s soccer team beat Brazil 1-0 Thursday for the gold medal.

Five Americans were detained in Beijing on August 19th, after displaying an LED banner with the words “Free Tibet” spelled out in both English and Chinese.

Amy Johnson, Sam Corbin, Liza Smith, Jacob Blumenfeld, and Lauren Valle were detained near midnight. Their whereabouts are currently unknown.

Personally, I’d say this has been one of the most entertaining and historical (in terms of world records set) Olympics in recent history. But the context in which it is being held is highly irregular, that a country with such a terrible history of human rights violations was awarded the games over nations like Canada and France.

When a country with China’s history earns the honour of hosting the most important and spectacular sporting event in the world, they should expect protest and public displays of displeasure.

Prior to the games, expecting some trouble, the Chinese government made impromptu protests illegal, requiring all potential protesters to register beforehand.

China has received over 77 applications since the first of the month, having yet to approve one. Many journalists are applying to stage protests only to test the extent of the limitations on freedom of expression and assembly in China. So far the answer has been pretty obvious.

Some beg to differ though. CBC reporter Sook-Yin Lee put freedom in China to the test, sipping canned beer in front of a guard in Tiananmen square. She earned no reaction from him.

I don’t think it really proves anything, but I guess it makes sense that in a country where internet freedom is a national threat, guards ignore the smaller things; like public drinking.

I really do love the show that’s being put on, these Olympic Games have been wonderfully entertaining and the stadiums are truly one of a kind. The only thing ruining the ambiance of the event, is the audience’s knowledge that as soon as these games are over, China’s political reputation will again make negative headlines.

Sad isn’t it?

Hugh Bachman, coach of the U.S. men’s Olympic volleyball team and his wife, Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, a former Olympic athlete, spoke out in an open letter about the death of Elisabeth’s father and injuries of her mother who were attacked Saturday at a tourist attraction in Beijing.

The attack killed Todd Bachman and critically injured his wife Barbara, both 62. Barbara was recently upgraded from critical to serious but stable at a Beijing hospital.

“We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of assistance and generosity that we have received and hope to convey our appreciation to everyone who has supported us and kept us in their thoughts and prayers,” the letter reads. It goes on to individually thank family, friends, Olympians, officials and President Bush for their support through the weekend.

“This letter cannot do justice in acknowledging the love and support we’ve felt,” they wrote. “We have been lifted up by the outpouring of support and love we’ve received from around the world.”

The 28 Bachman’s home and garden stores in Minnesota, of which Todd Bachman was chairman and CEO, are displaying posters and memorials for their fallen leader.

Barbara Bachman suffered multiple cuts and stab wounds in the attack the killed her husband, Todd Bachman, the U.S. Olympic Committee announced in a statement.

She underwent eight hours of surgery Saturday afternoon and evening and remains in critical but stable condition at a Beijing hospital where her family, including her son-in-law, U.S. men’s indoor volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon, and daughter, former olympic athlete Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon.

The Olympic Committee said McCutcheon would not coach the men’s volleyball team in their opening game again

Todd Bachman was chairman and CEO of Bachman’s, a home store that goes back over 100 years an four generations in the family.

At a press conference Saturday, Dale Bachman, president of the Minnesota company, explained the management structure — brothers and cousins who have lost one.

Video courtesy of The Boston Globe

The U.S. Olympic Committee identified the American killed Saturday in Beijing as Todd Bachman, 62, of Lakeville, Minn., who died after being attacked by an apparently deranged Chinese man who then took his own life.

Bachman was the father-in-law of men’s indoor volleyball head coach Hugh McCutcheon and father of McCutcheon’s wife, 2004 U.S. Olympic women’s indoor volleyball player Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon, who was with with her father when the attack took place. His wife Barbara, also 62, was seriously injured in the attack and taken to a local hospital with life-treatening injuries.

Elisabeth Bachman McCutcheon was not injured.

“The United States Olympic Committee is saddened to confirm the death of Todd Bachman,” the committee said in a statement Saturday.

The family was touring Beijing’s Drum Tower in Beijing when they were attacked shortly after noon local time. The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou. Yongming killed himself by jumping off a second story balcony after the attack.

The Olympic Committee said that the Bachmans were not wearing apparel that identified them as relatives of members of the U.S. Delegation at the time of the attack.

Bachman is the chairman and CEO of Bachman’s Floral, Home and Garden, a popular store in Minnesota.

“It is impossible to describe the depth of our sadness and shock in this tragic hour,” said U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth in the statement. “Our delegation comes to the Games as a family, and when one member of our family suffers a loss, we all grieve with them. Our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences are with the Bachman and McCutcheon families.”

The US men’s volleyball team plays its first game at 10 p.m. today against Venezuela.

A deranged Chinese man attacked two Americans and their Chinese tour guide, who were visiting the Drum Tower in Beijing, a 13th century tourist attraction, Saturday, killing one and seriously injuring another before taking his own life by jumping from a balcony.

The pair are relatives of a coach for the US Olympic men’s volleyball team.

“They are deeply saddened and shocked,” Darryl Seibel, a spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said of the volleyball team, the Associated Press is reporting.

The Chinese state news agency, Xinhua, identified the attacker as Tang Yongming, 47, from the eastern city of Hangzhou.

The attack occurred in broad daylight, hours after the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics and sent shock waves through the region. China is known for its low rate of violence against foreigners due to tight government controls. The government punishes crimes against foreigners more harshly than crimes against other Chinese.

In March, a hostage taker on a bus in Xi’an was shot and killed by a police sniper.

President Bush said he and his wife were saddened by the attack and offered his thoughts and prayers for the families. He said the U.S. government will provide assistance to the family if needed.

U.S. Ambassador Clark T. Randt is said to have visited the surviving female victim at an area hospital.

The State Department has not issued any warnings to Americans in China.

Dear EarthTalk: The 2008 Summer Olympics in China are drawing a lot of attention right now for political reasons. I’ve heard, though, that one ray of light is China’s effort to make the event as green as possible. What’s going on in that regard? — Josh Rogers, Concord, NH

It’s true that China is using the upcoming Beijing Olympics as a sustainability showcase, going so far as to dub the event the “Green Olympics.” Through a partnership with the U.S. government and the Maryland-based International Center for Sustainable Development, China is giving Beijing a green makeover to make the city a model for net zero pollution, green building and sustainable community development.

According to China’s Technology Minister Wan Gang, the Beijing Olympics are expected to generate some 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide, in large part because of the flying the world’s athletes will do to get to and from the games. To offset these potent greenhouse gases, China will take a series of measures, Wan says, including planting trees, closing 1,000 small coal mines before and during the games and banning up to a million cars from city streets.

Beijing’s Olympic Village, where the Chinese government has been busy erecting dozens of stadiums and other structures according to rigorous green standards, is emerging as quite an example of sustainable community development. The steel-looped Beijing National Stadium, for instance, includes a rainwater collection arrangement, a natural ventilation system and a clear roof with inflatable cushions made from ETFE (Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene), a kind of plastic that increases light and heat penetration.

Another example is the “Water Cube,” a spectacular-looking structure that looks like a building made of bubble-wrap. Officially known as the National Aquatics Center, it is completely surrounded with ETFE pillows and is expected to cut energy use by 30 percent. And when it has finished serving its purpose as an Olympic venue, it has been built to be converted to a shopping area and leisure center with tennis courts, retail outlets, nightclubs and restaurants.

All seven main Olympic stadiums are equipped with solar generators capable of outputting 480 kilowatts of energy at any given moment. Ninety percent of the lighting outside the stadiums, as well as the entire hot water supply for the Olympic Village will be powered by solar energy. Also, the main stadiums will receive power from Beijing’s first wind farm.

While the Olympic Games will only last for two weeks, environmentalists hope the greening of Beijing will indeed continue beyond the summer ‘08. Some proposals include building 14 wastewater treatment facilities to achieve 90 percent treatment rate in Beijing, and extending potable water to the entire city.

Also, the municipal government of Beijing has invested in expensive energy-efficient heating and transportation equipment that will greatly improve environmental quality for decades hence. Beijing, where 1,000 new cars roll onto the streets every day, also plans to source clean energy from other parts of China and through the purchase of pollution offsets on a quickly expanding international market.

CONTACTS: ICSD Beijing 2008 Green Olympics Initiative, www.solarcities.org/beijingolympics.htm; Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, en.beijing2008.cn.

Dear EarthTalk: How is it said that we are “losing winter” because of climate change? It didn’t seem so last winter, when it even snowed in places for the very first time. — Peter Kim, Duxbury, MA

The effects of global warming manifest themselves differently in different locations, and winter is no doubt getting shorter and warmer across New England, the Canadian Maritimes and Northern Europe.

In New England, average winter temperatures have increased 4.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. The years 2006 and 1998 were the first and second warmest years on record in the U.S. since we started counting, with the last eight five-year periods the warmest in history. According to the National Climatic Data Center, that warming has been accelerating over the last three decades, from just over a tenth of one degree Fahrenheit per decade to almost a third of a degree now.

By 2100, temperatures in the Northeastern U.S. are predicted to have risen by 8-12 degrees Fahrenheit, with the number of snow days half of what we are used to now. A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists on the effects of global warming in the Northeast concluded that, under some scenarios, “Only western Maine is projected to retain a reliable ski season by the end of the century, and only northern New Hampshire would support a snowmobiling season longer than two months.”

And it seems that as one moves farther north, more and more winter is lost. The Arctic Climate Impact Assessment of 2004 reported that Arctic temperatures are now rising at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the world (as much as 14 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years), reducing sea ice and melting frozen soils. It’s been widely reported that Alaska’s polar bears are probably doomed by 2050, but the scale of this climatic shift will likely do much more-completely changing the culture of the Arctic.

Global warming impacts are far from monolithic: Some parts of the planet are heating up and others are experiencing colder than average temperatures and record snowfalls, just as climate models predict. But the overall trend is clear: It’s getting warmer, and winter is losing intensity and duration. “If you’ve ever enjoyed ice skating, sledding, skiing, snowboarding or building a snowman, writes E – The Environmental Magazine, you should know that the future of these enshrined institutions is by no means guaranteed.”

Winter’s retreat may be sad for children intent on sledding, but it also augurs badly for the economy, especially for businesses reliant on snow. New England’s ski industry has experienced sharp declines in the number of days their lifts are shuttling people up the mountain. Snowmaking machines, originally intended to just cover any slack left by Mother Nature, now operate to capacity throughout the winter.

And snowmobile manufacturers report a 50 percent drop in sales over the last decade as the number of snow-covered days diminishes. Yet another business casualty is New England’s maple syrup industry, which has been thwarted in recent years by early thaws which have depleted production capacity by as much as 50 percent. According to Tom McCrumm of the Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, there may no longer be a maple sugar industry in New England by 2100.

CONTACTS: National Climatic Data Center, www.ncdc.noaa.gov; Union of Concerned Scientists, www.ucsusa.org; Massachusetts Maple Producers Association, www.massmaple.org.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Read past columns at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/archives.php.