The official mascots of the Beijing Olympics, the Five Friendlies, announced.

Their names (Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni) put together apparently mean "Beijing welcomes you!"

They represent "a panda, fish, Tibetan antelope, swallow and the Olympic flame, each one the color of one of the Olympic rings."

Gee. I was kind of hoping one would symbolize a Tiananmen Square protester. wink The flame mascot is a little scary.

~Adam

I was thinking along the same lines as Adam. Those mascots ought to be holding up banners like this one, but of course we will never see it at the Olympics ceremonies:

"Scary?" You want scary, get a load of this guy from Grenoble, '68: Link to pic.

it's a sperm cell on skis