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Im starting to agree mattperiolat. Im from Britain (Liverpool), and when I saw the Beijing opening ceremony four years ago I thought London had no chance of ever beating it. I thought Britain would be the forgotten opening ceremony following the epic show that China put on! However, having followed this, and other forums for the past year my opinion is changing. I am genuinly hopeful that what London and Danny Boyle is doing will be so different to anything we have seen before it will blow people away. I quite like how Danny Boyle said Beijing took opening ceremonies to their limits and that London isnt even trying to top that! It would simply be a waste of money to try! Although I thought Beijing was epic and spectacular at the time, looking back it did lack heart! I really hope London is epic, spectacular and full of heart! From what ive seen so far it looks like London is going to put on a giant (and I mean GIANT!) piece of theatre which is full of heart. And for that reason I do believe it will not only beat Beijing but will stand out and set a president for future opening ceremonies!

You know... far be it for me to be critical of former hosts, but I wonder if the producers for London are taking a queue from Beijing. Beijing's ceremonies were awe inspiring to be sure, but lacked heart. No real emotion behind them, aside from tips of the hat to the victims of the earthquake prior to the start of the Games. London seems to be going the opposite way - yes, we can stop your heart, but also bring a tear to the eye. Kinda making me wish I could see it in person, but I hope what I see on my television screen will be a tenth of what is in the stadium itself. Cannot wait.

Engraved iPod and branded underpants form part of Team GB's kit bag The full details of Team GB’s Olympic kit was revealed for the first time today. It includes everything from Team GB branded underwear, playing cards and even a specially engraved iPod. The pack, given to team GB's Olympic athletes, includes more than 91 items for men and 99 for women in six different bags. As part of their training wear alone athletes will be given two jackets, one zipped hoodie, a fleece, a vest, six different styles of t-shirts, two designs of polo shirt, three pairs of trousers, one pair of shorts, underwear and London 2012 sunglasses. Accessories include five styles of bag, flip flops, four styles of headwear, a washbag, antibacterial hand foam and playing cards. They are also provided with a Links of London discount card and 21 different Team GB pin badges. The iPod Nano is loaded with chants and cheering from fans to reinforce the message to athletes that Britain is backing them. Team GB bosses said they had gone for “quality rather than quantity” with a smaller kit list than the last Olympics in Beijing. http://www.standard....ag-7866147.html

Be careful not to overhype an educated audience. I am an avid olympics opening ceremony fan and I love the spoilers as much as the next guy but posts like "There won't be a dry eye in the house" tend to hype up a ceremony more than there are 10,000 people in this one segment. From what I am seeing London is about to do something completely new in the way of large scale olympic opening ceremonies and I'm excited and posts like that just seem to fuel my excitement even more...I am just praying it's not going to be a let down. GOOD LUCK LONDON!!! WOW US!

The latest issue of The Architect's Journal feature the Orbit on its cover and an in-depty review headlined: Awkward, bizarre, sublime. Mixed review but odd enough, despite being tauted the worst part of the tower, the critic wrote the best experience is when coming down the stairs. He even lauded it to be "one of London’s greatest ‘rooms’ – for that will be how the mesh-enclosed spiral stairway must surely come to be seen in." Interesting. Because from the picture the inside of the stairs looks really claustrophobic and cagey. I have a feeling it is more transparent if experienced in person and the motion of spiralling through the 'intestines' of the Orbit structure is the saving grace of the architecture. You can only tell when descending it in person! Oh the article can be read online here http://m.architectsjournal.co.uk/8631625.article

Firstly, there isn't a Pride House in London like there was in Vancouver, the venture collapsed when they couldn't find enough sponsorship. The IOC could do more on lots of issues like this. It's almost gone unnoticed they decided not to punish Saudi Arabia for their refusal to send a female athlete to London 2012. The Pride House episode in Sochi isn't very savoury either and the IOC could've expressed some unhappiness with how that was dealt with. And when it came to China all we heard from the IOC were the same lines: "the Games will open up China and be a catalyst for change..." Four years on and, if anything, China's human rights record is worse. It's fair enough to say it's not the IOC's business and organisations better equipped should be dealing with such things. Of course they should, but I also think the IOC has a role to play. This is especially true when you consider just how highly they regard themsevles - they have observer status at the UN for crying out loud; the very least I would expect given that is for them to have a strong conscious over gender, race and sexual equality. The recent Bahrain GP springs instantly to mind. Ecclestone was loath to say anything or to pull the event mainly because of the money it generates. But his reasoning was the pulling the event or speaking out would be politicising sport. What of course he failed to realise, or chose to ignore, was that the event was already heavily politicised, that it is used as a propoganda tool by the ruling classes to try to show the world "everything's fine in Bahrain". His sport, when it entered territories like that, didn't exist in a neutral space, but was instantly politicised. There's a danger of organisations like the IOC, FIA, FIFA getting blown around in political winds and not standing up for themselves or their values for fear of offending their hosts. But they need to remember from time to time, that their hosts are often not afraid to use them for their political ends. And more directly, as FIFA are finding out, workers' rights are something that definitely cannot be shirked. Qatar is building a bunch of new stadiums at FIFA's request, so FIFA should be pushing for much better labour laws for the migrant workforces out there. They're doing the bare minimum of course, and one wonders whether it was much different when the IOC were engaged with China. The IOC has choices, where to go, how to manage their events, how much they speak up for their own values. It's a difficult balancing act that depends on circumstance as much as anything, but that doesn't mean it's not one they shouldn't try to engage in. Having said all that, when our governments don't speak up against such things, the IOC probably wonders why they ought to when put under pressure to do so.