Not brand new news, hat-tip to Blondesense for making me notice this.  But really, digital fireworks, a substituted more cosmetically attractive little girl, and now, leaden medals for athletes?  Come on China, show some class.  Or IS this class  by your standards?

The quote from HuffPo and Blondesense:

“The medals, which were supposed to be made entirely of gold, were instead found to be composed of 99% lead alloy and coated with a gold-colored lead-based paint.”

Actually, that is not completely true, I went a-hunting yesterday for standards for the medals, since I was pretty certain they no longer were made of pure gold.  And here is what I found:

“The Olympic medals are designed especially for each individual Olympic Games by the host city’s organizing committee. Each medal must be at least three millimeters thick and 60 millimeters in diameter. Also, the gold and silver Olympic medals must be made out of 92.5 percent silver, with the gold medal covered in six grams of gold.”

(from: http://tinyurl.com/7abgj )

So, it should have been sterling silver beneath a coating of actual gold.  Gee, China doesn’t know lead from silver? No wonder they keep putting crap in our petfood and toothpastes and toys….they just can’t tell the difference??!

Cheapo is as cheapo does.  Or was it just crass and capitalistic of us to even check to metal content?  Maybe that giant blow-up pile of artistically faked dogcrap that got away from its display in Switzerland should have been put on a plane BACK to Hong Kong?