Jackie Chan is just happy to play a part, any part, in promoting the Beijing Olympics, he told audiences at the Savannah College of Art and Design at a ceremony in Hong Kong.

"I don't question my role. When the Beijing Organizing Committee beckons, I'm there," Chan said. "No one asked, 'why are we stuck in this situation?' We just felt very honored and very happy that we participated in the Beijing Olympics."

He said he passed on two commercials and a movie to help promote the Games. He also added that he's willing to put himself in harms way for China.

"If something happened and I had to sacrifice myself for the country, I would feel very honored," he said.

The Olympics are already having a positive effect on Beijingers. Now they got a taste of how much better life is with cleaner air and less traffic congestion, they want it to remain that way.

According to the BBC, Beijing residents are increasingly vocal about keeping the emergency measures introduced to improve the air quality during Olympics. A survey conducted by the Beijing News found that nearly 70% respondents are in favor keeping the traffic restrictions. There are even reports of people protesting the re-opening of a trash incinerator within the city.

"Citizens' expectations have already been driven up by the Olympics," said city official Tan Zhimin.

Will the measures remain? Probably not in the short term. They like the wealth that comes with the traffic and pollutants to give that up.

Longer term though, Beijing will probably do what most wealthy nations do: Ship their trash and pollutants to poorer parts of the country to be dealt with.

Listen to NPR's report.

China wasn't the first Olympics host country to pull a Milli Vanilli on the unsuspecting world; it turned out Australia was.

According to the AFP, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was miming to a recording of another orchestra in one of their performance in the 2000 Sydney Olympics opening ceremony.

"It's correct that we were basically miming to a pre-recording," SSO managing director Libby Christie said.

Christie said the recording was used because of workload issues and the organizers wanting "to leave nothing to chance."

China received a fair amount of criticism when it was found out that the little girl who sang in the opening ceremony wasn't singing in her own voice, but was lip-syncing to another's.

Barbara Bush, daughter of President Bush, has a crush on super swimmer Michael Phelps. Now we know why the president didn't head back to Washington when he got word that Russia had invaded Georgia; he was waiting for a chance to introduce his daughter to Phelps at the Olympics.

Doping and sports will forever go hand-in-hand as some athletes will try anything that would give them an edge over their competitors.

Table tennis or ping pong is a sport widely played in the Asian countries, especially in China. As a spectator sport though, it could use some work as evidenced by the empty seats in the Olympic games.

It was over before it even began. China's star hurdler Liu Xiang's quest to repeat his feat of capturing the gold medal at the 110 meter hurdles came to an end Monday when limped off the track due to injury during a warm-up practice for the preliminaries.

The Olympic opening ceremony was supposed to be where Liu Yan, 26, can show the world her talents, but 12 days before the big show, she fell during a rehearsal and may be paralyzed for the rest of her life.

The father-in-law of US men's volleyball team coach was fatally stabbed and his mother-in-law was seriously injured by a lone Chinese man while sightseeing in Beijing on August 9.

The 2008 Beijing Games got off to a great start, we're told. But where are the protesters?