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Wenlock and Mandeville On: 04-26-2012 At: 07:11 PM |
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SquidInk
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http://blogs.reuters.com/ask/2010/0...lympic-mascots/
quote:
The mascots for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, Wenlock and Mandeville, have been revealed and if you’re like me, you’re wondering what exactly are they?
What we know for sure: they’re metallic, have one eye each and no visible feet.
What the....?
We're totally screwed. |
SquidInk has attached this image:
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For if it profit, none dare call it Treason. |
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On: 04-26-2012 At: 07:28 PM |
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On: 04-26-2012 At: 07:30 PM |
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On: 04-26-2012 At: 08:15 PM |
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On: 05-19-2012 At: 01:46 AM |
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SquidInk
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Post #: 5
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmir...rds-everything/
quote:
The official mascot for the 2012 Olympics, set in London, has that going for it but is also controversial for an entirely different reason. London, the premiere panoptic city was one of the first to blanket itself with CCTV cameras; its heavy security and surveillance cordon is nicknamed the Ring of Steel. London decided to make its surveillance yen a dominant feature of its otherwise goofy mascots. “Wenlock” and “Mandeville” both have a huge single eye made out of a camera lens so that they can “record everything.” Image at right is from the official London Olympics website.
[...]
It is not in fact a joke; Surveillance State Wenlock also shows up on the official shopping page for the London 2012 Olympics. The origin story for the sibling surveillance enthusiasts is that “they were fashioned from droplets of the steel used to build the Olympic stadium,” reports the Guardian, saying the Olympic Committee passed over “anthropomorphic pigeons, an animated tea pot and a Big Ben with arms and legs” to choose the all-seeing mascots.
A surveillance mascot is appropriate for the 2012 Games. This Olympics will certainly win a gold medal for security measures. From the Guardian:quote:
The London Olympics will host the biggest mobilisation of military and security forces seen in the UK since the second world war. More troops – around 13,500 – will be deployed than are currently at war in Afghanistan. The growing security force is being estimated at anything between 24,000 and 49,000 in total. Such is the secrecy that no one seems to know for sure.
During the Games an aircraft carrier will dock on the Thames. Surface-to-air missile systems will scan the skies. Unmanned drones, thankfully without lethal missiles, will loiter above the gleaming stadiums and opening and closing ceremonies. RAF Typhoon Eurofighters will fly from RAF Northolt. A thousand armed US diplomatic and FBI agents and 55 dog teams will patrol an Olympic zone partitioned off from the wider city by an 11-mile, £80m, 5,000-volt electric fence…
London is also being wired up with a new range of scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking systems, new police control centres and checkpoints. These will intensify the sense of lockdown in a city which is already a byword across the world for remarkably intensive surveillance.
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For if it profit, none dare call it Treason. |
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On: 05-19-2012 At: 01:46 AM |
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On: 05-19-2012 At: 03:17 AM |
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Dale O Sea
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Post #: 7
Extracted from your snippet above:
- 24,000 - 49,000 security force
- 13,500 troops
- An aircraft carrier
- Surface-to-air missile systems
- Unmanned drones
- RAF Typhoon Eurofighters
- 1000 armed US diplomatic and FBI agents
- 55 dog teams
- 11-mile, 80m, 5,000-volt electric fence
- New range of scanners
- Biometric ID cards
- Dumber-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems
- Disease tracking systems
- New police control centres
- Police checkpoints
A few thoughts:
Does the rainbow say anything about the mascots' sexual preference? Are they mono-sexuals?
Of course all this gets packed up and stowed away after the games. 
Seems like a very good time to have a security, food, souvenier business in the UK..everyone else is screwed.
Smart Brits will watch on the telly and avoid that circus.
The cost to plan and manage this alone must be enormous.
And I can't believe they passed over "anthropomorphic pigeons, an animated tea pot and a Big Ben with arms and legs" and settled on spy cameras. They're testing this stuff there so they can bring it here.. I'm pretty sure NYC is getting there already.
Sibling surveillance enthusiasts - aka voyeurs or more commonly, peeping toms. |
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"Question everything, especially your media and their motives. -Me |
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On: 05-19-2012 At: 03:30 PM |
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SquidInk
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Post #: 8
Wow. Those bullet points really create a startling image. |
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For if it profit, none dare call it Treason. |
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On: 05-19-2012 At: 03:52 PM |
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Dale O Sea
Rogue Wingnut Pirate
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Post #: 9
quote:
Originally posted by SquidInk
Wow. Those bullet points really create a startling image.
Yes, that was quite a compact snippet you posted..I bet there is more, much more than this going on that, for security reasons, will be told after the Games..if ever. Dig deeper, I bet you find much more.
Making the spy-cams a mascot for the kids is diabolical tho..I have to tip my hat to the one that thought that up.
With all those cams trained on the citizenry, how do they like it when the tables are turned and a citizen photographs bobbies bending the law, MP's leaving hooker's apartments, etc..can one photograph anything they want to this summer while enjoying the Games? I know here that you take the wrong picture, whip out your camera in the wrong place, at the wrong time, it gets confiscated and you have to answer a lot of questions. We are all lone-wolf terrorists here in the states, or presumed so. Dont get caught snapping shots of Hoover Dam, planes taking off, architecture..you may be arrested.
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On: 06-01-2012 At: 11:15 PM |
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On: 06-01-2012 At: 11:59 PM |
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Fan
Lady with a
Registered: May 2011
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Post #: 11
Montreal history of olympic financial disaster
quote:
The Olympics were a financial disaster for Montreal, as the city faced debts for 30 years after the Games had finished. The Quebec provincial government took over construction when it became evident in 1975 that work had fallen far behind schedule; work was still under way just weeks before the opening date, and the tower was not built. Mayor Jean Drapeau had confidently predicted in 1970 that "the Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby", but the debt racked up to a billion dollars that the Quebec government mandated the city pay in full. This would prompt cartoonist Aislin to draw a pregnant Drapeau on the telephone saying, "Allo, Morgentaler?" in reference to a Montreal abortion provider.
The Olympic Stadium was designed by French architect Roger Taillibert. It is often nicknamed The Big O as a reference to both its name and to the doughnut-shape of the permanent component of the stadium's roof, though The Big Owe has been used to reference the astronomical cost of the stadium and the 1976 Olympics as a whole. It has never had an effective retractable roof, and the tower was completed only after the Olympics. In December 2006 the stadium's costs were finally paid in full.[9] The total expenditure (including repairs, renovations, construction, interest, and inflation) amounted to C$1.61 billion. Today, despite its huge cost, the stadium is devoid of a major tenant, after the Montreal Expos moved in 2005.
The Big O is a very sore point in Montreal to this day, and the loss of our MLB team certainly did not help anything.
Think about that : 1.61 billion for a crappy stadium. OUCH. |
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On: 06-02-2012 At: 12:43 AM |
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On: 06-02-2012 At: 02:40 PM |
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On: 06-08-2012 At: 05:37 AM |
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On: 06-08-2012 At: 02:08 PM |
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