It's no small secret that Lego holds a spot near and dear to many an editor here at Gizmodo, and if you somehow managed to combine those little blocks with Star Wars and the 2008 Summer Olympics (concluding today), well, you'd have our attention faster than it takes to pull the legs off a minifig. Flickr member 713 Avenue did just that, and like those remarkable Lego scenes from history and Lego Beijing Olympic buildings we brought you a while back, these are pretty magical too.

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Track and Field athletes will probably roll their eyes at me for this one, but still I have to say I was amazed to see this little four-wheeled RC car scurrying across the field last night during the men's 5,000 metre race carrying javelins, and dammit, I wanted to write about it. After a little digging, I discovered a photographer who had documented the little cars (there are two at the Beijing games), and how they're a first for the Olympic summer games.

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It has been quite an Olympics hasn't it? From the spectacular opening ceremonies, to the amazing performances by Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt (not to mention all of the controversy stirred up by the Chinese government). In years past I can't say that I was all that excited about the Olympics--but I will be kind of sad to see this one go. The good news is that just because the games are over doesn't mean you can't carry the torch...literally. So, check out the following ten gadgets to learn how to play like an Olympian.

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Full-screen this beautiful high-res panorama cooked up by the New York Times's top-notch interactive graphics folks and find out. [NY Times via Kottke]

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Over 60 comments on one Apple forum thread relate to problems downloading music from iTunes in China, and now it's believed that China has blocked access to Apple's store altogether. Apparently there's some correlation with the restricted access and the release of a pro-Tibet album by The Art of Peace Foundation, "Songs for Tibet."

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This Olympics Village model made by an expert card-stacker makes the Lego Olympics look just naff in comparison. I mean, that model's just a lot of plastic parts snapped together: This guy had to avoid shaky hands, sneezing and stepping incautiously for a whole 20 days while he put the card model together, detailing even the woven-girder shapes of the Bird's Nest. Yup— that's 20 days, 140,000 cards and 100% craziness. [Random Good Stuff]

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One of the more popular theories behind Michael Phelps zooming past records with every stroke--besides his US$500 LZR super suit and daily regimen of 12,000 calories composed mostly of mermaid babies--is that the Olympic pool itself is turning swimmers into Aquamen, but you know, not totally lame. But the pool's designer, John Bilmon says, it's really just because the Water Cube is really pretty and inspiring. They actually left out the two changes that would've granted swimmers superhuman speed.

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That Nintendo Wii, what will it think up next? It's made us smarter and fitter and stronger and just so much better. Oh, and have you heard? Now it's creating OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALISTS. Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima just took the gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, and instead of thanking God or his trainers in typical fashion, he gave another performance enhancer a shout-out:

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The 2008 Olympics have begun, and now that we've had a few days to digest the coverage, we've found the best (and worst) things about watching the games online and on your TV. Those of us stuck here in America and not lucky enough to own Vista must deal with NBC's often delayed event broadcasts. Sure, if it's American basketball or track you're looking for, you can find everything you need without stepping away from your HDTV set. But if you've waited four years to watch table tennis or want to see how that Latvia-Angola rivalry plays out, you'll definitely have to use NBC's streaming online player. Here's a rundown of the tradeoffs between HDTV and NBC's online viewer, and some helpful tips to keep you from getting too mired in the programming.

AU: Nice to know what the US is bitching about, when all we have is Yahoo!7...

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A local Beijing paper has revealed that some of the amazing fireworks in the Olympics opening show were digitally-crafted fakes, inserted into the live TV feed. The Beijing Times quotes the head of visual effects, who says that the 28 giant footprints that stomped through the air above the city, ending at the stadium, were advanced CGI. Though the pyrotechnics really were set off, the airborne camera view that the rest of the world watched was fake. Why go to these lengths? Apparently the Olympic committee decided that to follow the real trail of firework footprints was too dangerous for a helicopter camera. Instead a team spent almost a year crafting the fake segment, paying attention to even get the smog lighting effects correct. [The Telegraph]

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