Given my Olympic policy of featuring athletes, I’ve got a small backlog of photos to get through to lead off these linkdumps. Let’s start the process with Canadian actress Tracy Spirdakos.

The Republicans are going to play up their penchant for fiscal responsibility (AKA cutting social spending) but did you know that Barack Obama is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower? (Forbes)

The Romney/Ryan strategy appears to be that if you say something often enough, it becomes the truth. That’s the only thing that explains a series of factual errors the AP have found the pair have been making. (Daily Kos)

The New Yorker did a profile on Paul Ryan. Here’s the Cole’s Notes version. (The Fix)

After the jump, the man behind @hockeyyinsiderr, a little known secret about Goldeneye for N64 and another classic Family Feud moment.

This next article is a lengthy look at how TED is used by people to gain celebrity and get their ideas out there rather than solely for deep intellectual pursuits. (The New Republic) I’ll give you a confirmation on that after I read Greene’s book about the multiverse. That should answer my question right there.

Does Progressive insurance owe you money? Chances are they’ll pull out every dirty trick in the book to keep it. Even if it means defending your sister’s killer in court. (Gawker)

Is traditional consumer marketing dead? Social media and word of mouth may be the best ways to go. (Harvard Business Review)

Being a giant usually isn’t too good for your life expectancy but that doesn’t get the WWE’s Big Show down. (The Classical)

An intrepid OJHL scout has done some investigating and believes he has cracked the case of the identity of anonymous hockey tweeter @hockeyyinsider. (@kyriacou22’s Blog) Now @hockeyyinsider says that he isn’t the person @kyriacou22 has identified. @HockeyyInsider claims that he’s 37 and owns a house in Montreal and a Mercedes (I believe he said a 2008 Mercedes SLK but he’s deleted all tweets with “personal information”). If he wants to back that up, he can fire us an email with the proof.

Canadian sports writers can be such smug assholes when it comes to Olympic coverage. (Deadspin)

Remember those porn stars who promised blowjobs to their male Twitter followers if the Miami Heat won the NBA title? Well, they went through with the deal. (With Leather, Slightly NSFW)

Parks and Rec is doing some Olympic-themed ads ahead of its season premiere. It’s some pretty cool thematic promotion. (Sports Grid)

The Ouya console’s Kickstarter funding period is done and it raised a record $8.5 million. So what happens now? (Insert Coin)

Everyone loved multiplayer in Goldeneye on the N64 but did you know that it was added in without Nintendo or Rare management knowing about it? (Gamasutra)

Just for fun, here’s a gallery of Nintendo characters at the Olympics in GIF form. (Jest)

The Family Feud asked 100 men to name something Shaq has that’s bigger than yours. What do you think that someone said?

Since the Olympics are over, let’s look back at some funny moments in these news bloopers.