Producers of the dazzling Olympic opening ceremony on August 8th acknowledged that an adorable nine-year-old girl in a red dress was miming her solo rather than singing, and that the actual singer had been removed at the last minute because of her round face and uneven teeth. They also revealed that the impressive 29-step progression of firework "footprints" that on television appeared to lead across Beijing to the stadium was a computer-generated graphic.rnDespite ugly scenes in July when thousands of people queued for hours, pushed, shoved and tussled with police to buy the last available Olympic tickets, many seats were vacant during the first week of competition. When Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, won his third gold medal of the games on August 12th, hundreds of seats at the pool were empty. That day nearly half the venues were less than four-fifths full, and some two-thirds empty. The International Olympic Committee and the games' sponsors have asked Beijing to increase attendance by easing access to the tightly secured Olympic complex.
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