China plans to weather any storm

Chinese officials are apparently willing to go to great lengths -- including military force -- to prevent anything from raining on their Olympic parade.

While that might make Taiwan a tad nervous, all China is really talking about is firing rockets to induce showers before any rain clouds reach the site of the opening ceremonies.

While that might make Yao Ming a tad nervous -- he is, after all, the best-known Chinese Rocket (Houston variety) -- what actually will be launched into the clouds are rockets laced with silver iodine and dry ice.

That tactic is expected to “artificially reduce the level of rainfall on a comparatively small scale,” said Wang Yubin, deputy chief engineer of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, to the Daily Telegraph.

And that might make Olympic officials a tad nervous about whether performance-enhancing substances are allowed for opening ceremonies.

Trivia time

What place did China’s basketball team finish in the 2004 Olympics?

Nickel offense?

Nebraska Athletic Director Steve Pederson is ready to pitch an idea that would allow Big 12 Conference football players five years of eligibility, saying, “The reality is a high percentage of players are here for five years anyway.... So why not let the players play the whole time?”

It’s a novel thought, considering the number of players who wait until after college before getting five years.

Yo-ho, yo-ho ...

Italy eliminated the U.S. representative from the America’s Cup.

That means Italians can now remind Americans about who has the richer sailing history and Native Americans can remind Italians that Christopher Columbus was actually lost (India, anyone seen India?).

Meanwhile, those at Deadspin.com were spinning the loss this way: “We refuse to watch until they let the boats shoot at each other, with no winner declared until one crew boards the other ship and takes everyone prisoner.”

Sounds more like a clip from the latest “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.

Cowboy saves colt

Lineman Leonard Davis was in a quagmire this week and it had nothing to do with the symbolic state of his new team, the Dallas Cowboys.

Davis saved the life of a neighbor’s horse by pulling it from a mud hole near his ranch in Chandler, Ariz.

“The horse was close to drowning, Leonard grabbed his John Deere tractor; he was waist deep in mud,” Roy Garibaldi, Davis’ friend, told the Arizona Republic.

The work seemed disproportional to the reward: A box of vegan chocolates from a national animal rights group.

Vegan chocolate, what else would a 366-pound lineman want?

Lost in a crowd

A couple hundred runners in the Rite Aid Cleveland 10K took a detour last weekend when a police officer accidentally diverted the lead car off the course at the two-mile mark, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Those runners ended up going nine miles instead of the required 6.1.

Next year, race officials might consider offering the Rite Turn Cleveland 10K.

Trivia answer

Eighth, so there’s one team the U.S. should be able to beat in 2008.

And finally ...

Jay Stearns, who scored the winning goal that ended the Corning (N.Y.) West High lacrosse team’s 97-game, 41-year losing streak to its rival East High, told the Corning Leader: “I’m going to wake up tomorrow and not believe it myself. They said it couldn’t be done. When I grew up, I didn’t think it could be done.”

A Chicago Cub fan’s perspective? Geez, I could do 41 years standing on my head.

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chris.foster@latimes.com