NEW YORK — Among the more popular U.S. Olympians is Aly Raisman, an 18-year-old Jewish gymnast from the Boston area whose star has been rising in London for a few reasons. First it was her song choice for the floor exercise routine — an instrumental version of “Hava Nagila” that she had used last week at the preliminaries. Then it was the results shocker: She was ahead of two-time world champion Jordyn Wieber in the qualifying stage on Sunday. Wieber was eliminated from the all-around individual finals since she finished third among the Americans and Olympic rules allow only two gymnasts from each country to compete in the finals.

Then it was a television interview she gave NBC, as Wieber was crying in the background (although the video gained popularity because of network’s decision to show Raisman with Wieber in the background), in which she expressed her happiness and surprise at reaching the finals. And then it was her parents, Ricky and Lynn, who stole the show in a video that shows them anxiously observing her routine from the stands. The video became an instant hit on the Internet.

Finally, Raisman showed everyone why she is here, as her floor exercise routine helped win the gold for Team USA in women’s gymnastics. She is set to compete again on Thursday and on Aug. 7.

Don’t mess with Dr. Ruth

Another Olympics story comes from Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who took the twittasphere aback last Friday by tweeting, “The Olympics shooting competition is Sunday. Did you know I was a sniper in Israel? I can still put 5 bullets in red circle.” Makes you look at Dr. Ruth, who wouldn’t stop talking about sex, a little differently.

Roseanne’s classy chicken tweets

Roseanne Barr is known for having an extremely outspoken Twitter account, and the latest victim to her flaming attack is the fried chicken chain Chick-fil-A. The restaurant made headlines last week when its president, Dan Cathy, came out publicly against gay marriage.http://www.6nobacon.com/2012/07/25/roseannes-extreme-troll-feeding-anti-chick-fil-a-twitter-rant/www.6nobacon.com/2012/07/25/roseannes-extreme-troll-feeding-anti-chick-fil-a-twitter-rant/  “Suck my ***** chick filet-nazi chicken ****ing ***cks.” Lovely. Upset Twitter followers began “trolling” her Twitter and responding with hateful comments, which made Barr go even further below the belt in tweets that involved Christians, cancer and AIPAC. She later apologized.

Cardboard bicycle for all!

An Israeli man came out with a unique idea – a cardboard bicycle. Izhar Gafni, who said he came up with the idea while working in California, admitted that several engineers declined to take up his idea. But after watching a documentary on the assembling of a jumbo jet in the face of doubts, he was inspired to make his dream come true. Gafni says the bicycle, made of fully recycled cardboard, would cost $9 to $12 to make and sell for $60 to $90 retail — and should be strong enough to support a person weighing up to 300 pounds.

Madison Beer takes action

Madison Beer’s popularity continues to soar after she was “discovered” by Justin Bieber, and now the young Jewish singer is using the newfound fame to speak up. In a recent tweet, Beer said, “I hate bullys (sic). I think of what happened in school … it makes me cry. I was bullied. By one kid,Tormented. Im sorry for anyone who went thru it.” Her 36,000 followers (now known as, no joke, Beerbabes) immediately responded by saying that they are all jealous and that she is perfect.