Author: Dan Oshinsky

The New York Times is asking readers to submit the word that best describes their mood today, and they’re pairing those words with readers’ political affiliations. They’ve combined it all into a cool Flash graphic featuring the most popular one word submissions.

Here’s to hoping that the Times keeps this graphic going as the networks call Virginia and Indiana tonight.

Facebook has a special election day page up, with a counter at the top showing how many Facebook users have voted, a Google Map that automatically shows you where your polling place is, a reminder to those who live in states that allow registration on election day that it’s not too late to do so and the hotline for the Election Protection Coalition. Impressively done, Facebook.

And FYI: in the three minutes that it’s taken since I grabbed that screenshot, the counter has gone up over 235,000.

If you followed the Rocky‘s Olympics blog this summer, then you know that the real story of the 2008 Beijing Games was who was signing on the dotted line and who was taking over the airwaves.

You probably remember Li Ning. The athletic maker, whose sales in China placed the company third behind Nike and Adidas before the Games, received the greatest free ad ever when their founder and chairman, Li Ning, flew above the Bird’s Nest to light the Olympic torch during the Opening Ceremonies. More than 800 million Chinese saw the torch lighting live.

Meanwhile, Yili used the Games to increase their predicted sales of milk — yes, milk — to over $2.92 billion for the calendar year.

Now, the post-Olympic numbers are in. In 1,500 face-to-face surveys across the country, when asked what brands they had been paying attention to recently, 19.1 percent of Chinese said — without being prompted — Li Ning. Before the Games, 16.3 percent mentioned the brand.

But here’s the bigger news: Li Ning actually leapfrogged Adidas in terms of recognition, even though Adidas was the official athletic sponsor of the Olympics. 24.1 percent of Chinese said they knew Adidas before the Games. Afterward, only 18.6 percent said they knew the brand.

As for the aforementioned Yili, they’re now the second most recognizable brand in China, according to this survey. 29.3 percent of those polled mentioned the brand, up more than 15 percent from the pre-Olympics polling.

The survey also asked about athletes who competed in the Olympics. Michael Phelps was recognized by exactly 0.0 percent of Chinese before the Games. Afterward, 10.8 percent were able to name him. But diver Guo Jingjing made the biggest leap, recognized by only 11.4 percent before the Games but by 40.2% afterward.

It should be no surprise that she wore Li Ning in the pool and was featured in several Yili ads during the Games.

[Random post-script: I am wearing my Shaquille O’Neal Li Ning sneakers as I type this post. I am not entirely sure how how affects my biases toward the company, though I should say that they make very comfortable shoes.]

Just one image from tonight’s Obama rally at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Yes, that “Missouri for Change” banner looked even more impressive with the Senator in front of it.

More photos from tonight available here.

Seen on the south quad at the University of Missouri today, where Barack Obama will speak tonight.

The city that brought you The Time That Fans Threw Snowballs at Santa and The Time That Fans Applauded Michael Irvin Getting Taken Off the Field in an Ambulance brings you rioting, looting and chaos. You won’t believe the photos from last night in Philadelphia.

Somewhere in Tuscaloosa, Ala., a senior on the Alabama women’s golf team is waking up and finding out that the Chinese government had her on a watchlist for potential troublemakers during the Olympics, according to USA Today.

Which is especially confusing because golf isn’t an Olympic sport. And because Lexus Nexus and Internet searches turn up no evidence that she ever went to Beijing.

The athlete in question is Laura Goodwin — that’s her, at right — and she’s from Birmingham, Ala. Her official Alabama bio makes no mention of a trip to the Olympics. A search of Sports Reference’s Olympics page shows that no athletes with the last name Goodwin participated in the 2008 games, so she wasn’t there to support a family member (or at least one with the same last name). Unless she was supporting a Tide alumnus in Beijing, I’d guess that the Chinese government just made a clerical error when placing Goodwin’s name on their list. The fact that no one over there speaks English probably had something to do with it.

I’d also like to point out the closing line from the initial USA Today article: “Calls to the Chinese Embassy on Wednesday went unanswered.” I feel your pain.

At left, there’s today’s Columbia Missourian with a late-entry for “obvious subhead of the year.”

In related news: yes, the town really is excited for the Senator’s visit. Well, except for a for a few guys at the local barber shop this afternoon.

“You think he’s really coming? What’s his name? Bo-ama?” one asked me, even as several copies of local papers confirming the visit littered the floor. I didn’t wonder aloud why he was unable to pronounce the Senator’s name, and instead asked the barber why he didn’t believe the news reports .

“Well, they said the same thing about McCain,” he said. “And he just got barbecue and left.”

I tried to assure them that, yes, Obama was really giving a speech in town, not just grabbing a pulled pork sandwich. “Should be a football sized crowd,” I said.

“I guess we’ll be getting the hell out of here, then,” one said.

Over at Time’s Swampland, they’re having a few glitches with the commenting filters. A word of advice from someone who’s been there: a mea culpa works nicely. Also: don’t switch blogging platforms with a week to go in the election.

Watching that old Don Cheadle ad for the NFL playoffs, I was struck by something he said: “Joe’s not just a name. It’s an idea.”

Weird how true that sentiment is this year, no?