Big Macs and the Gold

Today I bring you two articles that I find rather interesting. They are linked in my mind by only the 29384729394203 commercials I saw during the Olympics for McDonald's.

1. Man eats 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/10/big.macs.record.ap/index.html

(thanks to Barth for finding this article
If you don't actually want to read it, I'll provide a summary:

• Man eats a Big Mac or two everyday
• Man freezes Big Macs so in case of snow, he can still eat one
• Man has missed only 8 days in the past 36 years - he has all the receipts to prove it
• Surprisingly, man only weighs 185 lbs. and he's 6'2"
• Man is creepy and weird

2. China Goes for (All of) the Gold [WARNING: this one's kinda dull, only read the first 4 paragraphs or so]
http://www.slate.com/id/2196987/
National wealth worth weight in gold (medals) [Don't worry - this one's more interesting]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26335644/

I read an article the other day (not this one, but this gives the same general point) that economy has a lot to do with which countries win the most gold metals.

Once again, I will summarize below:

• Economists can pretty accurately predict which country will win the most golds
• Medals and PPP (Purchasing Power Parity for you non-business majors) positively correlate
• Emerging economies will win more medals
• High GDP (Gross Domestic Product) = High Medal count

I mean, the theory is actually pretty amazing, and partly true. I don't think anyone can count on this to be completely accurate (as pointed out in the article). However, maybe that's because of the nature of sports. The underdog can always win...that's what makes everything exciting. (The second article points out the exceptions.)

So McDonald's and gold medals. I'm gonna safely say there really is no correlation - besides the fact that the more countries McDonald's is in (adds to GDP), the more gold medals are possible. And its not because of the Big Macs!