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A gallimaufry of London 2012 bits


Rob2012

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With iOS 6, Apple has launched Apple Maps, a replacement for Google's Map app. Packed with new features one of the key boasting points of the new Apple Maps is the new 3D mapping feature that lets you see London as you've never seen it before - well unless you've been in a plane on the way back from America at the right time, with clear skies.

We've been scanning the city to find a number of fun easter eggs to find yourself, here is what we've found so far:

The Olympic rings hidden in Tower Bridge

Before the Olympics LOCOG installed a set of Olympic rings on Tower Bridge to celebrate the London 2012 games. Before they were unveiled they were hidden - something you can see from above now in Apple Maps.

apple-maps-london-easter-eggs-0.jpg

Olympic Stadium is still getting ready for the London 2012 Games

apple-maps-london-easter-eggs-4.jpg?20120920-105143

Remember the Opening Ceremony. It was amazing right, but when Apple's Flyover was going over it the stadium was still being built. In fact here you can see what Danny Boyle was trying to achieve with the Thames running through the stage. Oh yeah.

Beach Volleyball at Horse Guard's Parade

apple-maps-london-easter-eggs-5.jpg?20120920-105143

Still being built.

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full artcle

http://www.pocket-li...don-easter-eggs

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  • 3 weeks later...

His team won four instead of the projected one gold medal, but nevertheless the head coach of UK Athletics steps down -- because it failed the overall medal projection by two medals. Talk about problems! ;)

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee to step down

Although it's great now that Team GB are of such a standard we judge on gold medals rather than medals I do think athletics did have a pretty poor showing in terms of getting people through to finals. They kind of have the opposite problem to swimming, who got loads into finals but couldn't convert to medal, while in athletics on the track at least the number of finalists was few and far between - but with a much better return rate in terms of medals. The field team did better though in terms of getting people to finals.

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Another Olympic Games in London within only 20 years? Jacques Rogge sure was very polite to his British hosts, but he knows probably best that that won't happen (only maybe if they have to replace another host).

Agree cant see London bidding again in 20 years to host the games.

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Cyber attacks launched at London 2012 Olympic Games every day

The IT supporting the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics was hit by cyber attacks every day during the Games, including some that were well organised and automated and one in particular that was a major assault.

London 2012 CIO Gerry Pennell revealed the scale of the threats that the Olympics successfully coped with in an exclusive post-Games interview with Computer Weekly.

"We were attacked every day," Gerry Pennell said.

"Some of the attacks were fairly well orchestrated. Some just before the Games were automated. We prepared for this well in advance so it didn't cause us any problems."

When asked if London 2012 was hit by a particularly major cyber attack, Pennell simply replied: "Yes. And that's all I'm saying."

Inside the Olympics Technology Operations Centre on the 21st floor of London's Canary Wharf, there was even a special security hotline, housed inside a glass phone booth, with a direct connection to "relevant authorities" in the event of a major attack, according to Pennell.

However, while some threats were potentially serious, others were easier to defend.

"It was interesting watching some of it because some of the groups that were involved, from the hacktivist community, once they got fed up of trying to take us down moved their attentions to other organisations," he said.

"Entertainingly, some of this stuff was remarkably easy to track as there was the hashtag #letthegamesbegin, and they were publishing when they were going to attack – '7pm on Friday night let's have a go at the website'. There were other more serious attacks, none of it caused a problem, but that's down to the right amount of planning and energy in preparation."

Much of the Olympics website operation involved pushing out information about events and results. Using a content distribution network minimised the risks, as there was no single point of weakness.

"We use a content delivery network to push out data, which makes it hard for us to be hit by a denial of service attack because our front end is highly distributed," Pennell said in a separate interview before the Games.

London2012.com became the most popular sports website in the world during the Games, with 38.3 billion page views, peaking at 96,871 page views per second.

Computer Weekly

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Olympics and Paralympics £377m under budget

The cost of the London Olympics and Paralympics will be £377m less than expected, according to the Government.

The combined budget for the two events was £9.29bn, but the projected cost is £8.92bn.

Savings came from a drop in security, transport and construction expenses.

Minister for Sport Hugh Robertson said: "London 2012 was a tremendous success and it is a significant achievement to deliver this large and complex programme on time and under budget."

Another £103m from a contingency fund was also left unspent, meaning a total of £480m still remains from the original budget.

The government said this money will cover "risks" linked to the revamping of the Olympic Park.

The figures are from the Government's final quarterly economic report.

With some London 2012 contracts still to be wound up, ministers have described the underspend as a "prudent" estimate.

Robertson added: "The work of the construction and delivery teams, from the ODA [Olympic Delivery Authority] and Locog [London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games], has set a very high standard.

"I have no doubt that London 2012 has set a new benchmark for the management of Olympic and Paralympic Games in future."

The ODA is now transforming the apartments in the Olympic Village into thousands of new homes, removing partitions and fitting kitchens.

It is also returning temporary Games-time venues to their previous use and owners.

ODA chief executive Dennis Hone said: "We are delighted that the venues and infrastructure that we were responsible for delivering proved to be such a big hit and provided an incredible stage and backdrop for the world's greatest sporting event."

BBC

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Coe reveals Olympic fears that kept him awake at night

- London Olympics organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe had sleepless nights worrying about possible terrorist attacks during this year's Games, according to his autobiography to be published next month.

Coe, 56, who exuded calm and confidence as the chairman of the committee that organised the hugely successful Games in July and August, tells of his concerns that kept him awake at night.

"I was less concerned about a Twin Towers scenario because there were missiles on tower blocks and Navy Seals in exercise boarding boats on the Thames," he writes in extracts published by The Times on Saturday.

He says though, he was haunted by a "lone wolf" terrorist attack.

"I was haunted by the fear of that when people were celebrating having street parties or watching TV screens in pubs ten deep. That fear never left me.

"I counted off the days, counted off the hours."

In his book he describes meeting Chris Allison, the assistant commissioner of the Metroplitan Police a few days before the Games ended.

"We didn't even need to say what we were thinking. We just looked at each other and I said: 'This isn't done until we've got everybody home safely.' And he said, 'Yeah, I know'."

In an interview with The Times, Coe says he was sitting with his sons in the Olympic Stadium on the last night of the Paralympic Games when it suddenly occurred to him that the venture that had dominated his life for the last 10 years was over.

After the closing ceremony had ended, his sons asked if they could go down on to the track. Thinking of lots of bureaucratic reasons why they could not he was just about to say "no," when he realised it did not matter any more if they did.

He went down to the track with them and said: "As we stood there, it was instinct. I just pulled them both into a hudddle and thanked them for the last 10 years."

Asked if he felt guilty at not being around for his young family, he said, "Yes absolutely it was an obsession."

Coe, who won the 1,500 metres gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the 1984 Games in Los Angeles is unopposed in the election for chairman of the British Olympic Association on Nov.7.

His book, "Running My Life - The Autobiography" is due to be published the following day.

Reuters

http://uk.eurosport....14485--spt.html

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Coe reveals Olympic fears that kept him awake at night

- London Olympics organising committee chairman Sebastian Coe had sleepless nights worrying about possible terrorist attacks during this year's Games, according to his autobiography to be published next month.

Coe, 56, who exuded calm and confidence as the chairman of the committee that organised the hugely successful Games in July and August, tells of his concerns that kept him awake at night.

"I was less concerned about a Twin Towers scenario because there were missiles on tower blocks and Navy Seals in exercise boarding boats on the Thames," he writes in extracts published by The Times on Saturday.

He says though, he was haunted by a "lone wolf" terrorist attack.

"I was haunted by the fear of that when people were celebrating having street parties or watching TV screens in pubs ten deep. That fear never left me.

"I counted off the days, counted off the hours."

In his book he describes meeting Chris Allison, the assistant commissioner of the Metroplitan Police a few days before the Games ended.

"We didn't even need to say what we were thinking. We just looked at each other and I said: 'This isn't done until we've got everybody home safely.' And he said, 'Yeah, I know'."

In an interview with The Times, Coe says he was sitting with his sons in the Olympic Stadium on the last night of the Paralympic Games when it suddenly occurred to him that the venture that had dominated his life for the last 10 years was over.

After the closing ceremony had ended, his sons asked if they could go down on to the track. Thinking of lots of bureaucratic reasons why they could not he was just about to say "no," when he realised it did not matter any more if they did.

He went down to the track with them and said: "As we stood there, it was instinct. I just pulled them both into a hudddle and thanked them for the last 10 years."

Asked if he felt guilty at not being around for his young family, he said, "Yes absolutely it was an obsession."

Coe, who won the 1,500 metres gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the 1984 Games in Los Angeles is unopposed in the election for chairman of the British Olympic Association on Nov.7.

His book, "Running My Life - The Autobiography" is due to be published the following day.

Reuters

http://uk.eurosport....14485--spt.html

Should be an interesting read!

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David Beckham speedboat from Olympic Games on sale for £250,000

149363307.jpg

Sports fans may have to pay £250,000 to buy the speedboat that David Beckham powered down the River Thames to the Olympic opening ceremony.

The former England captain and LA Galaxy star took the controls of the 2008 "Torchbearer" Bladerunner BR RIB 35 to bring the Olympic flame to the ceremony.

An estimated 900 million people watched Beckham pilot the speedboat on the flame's final journey to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London.

The boat, now billed by Bonhams as the "ultimate souvenir", goes under the hammer at Mercedes-Benz World Brooklands in Surrey on December 3.

It comes complete with its original opening ceremony smoke-emitting rockets and high-pressure waterjet bar.

Tim Schofield of Bonhams said: "After a fantastic summer of British sporting success, Bonhams is proud to offer for sale the ultimate souvenir from the Olympic opening ceremony - what has been dubbed 'the greatest show on earth'."

http://www.standard....00-8269537.html

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Olympics sports get increase from London revenues

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Summer sports federations are set to receive an increase in revenues from the London Olympics compared to their share from the 2008 Beijing Games.

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations shared a total of $296 million among the 28 sports on the 2008 Beijing Olympics program.

Andrew Ryan, ASOIF director, says the 26 sports federations on the London program will receive a "substantial increase" this time.

Ryan says the final figure could top $400 million. The total will be known in January when the IOC completes collecting revenue from broadcasters and sponsors.

The International Association of Athletics Federations will get the biggest single share based on ASOIF's formula. The second-tier of ASOIF members includes basketball, soccer, gymnastics and swimming.

AP

http://sports.espn.g...=oly&id=8694677

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David Beckham Olympic Boat Sale Sinks Without Trace

The flashy speedboat David Beckham piloted up the River Thames in London during the Olympic Games opening ceremony has failed to sell at auction.

Millions of people watched on TV as Beckham appeared to power up the river toward the Olympic Park in Stratford carrying the Olympic torch in July.

But not a single buyer could be found for the vessel at an auction, organised by prestigious auctioneers Bonhams in leafy Weybridge on Monday.

Equipped with four rockets and a special seat for the torchbearer, the boat missed its £250,000 reserve price by £70,000.

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http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/411142/20121204/beckham-boat-auction-fail.htm

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