2012 London Olympics: The First 9 Days - In Focus. More than 10,000 athletes from 200 national Olympic committees around the globe have gathered in London for the 17-day 2012 Summer Olympic Games. So far, dozens of Olympic and world records have already been broken and more than 500 medals have been awarded. As we pass the Games' halfway point, here's a look back at some amazing events that have taken place in the U.K. over the past nine days. [62 photos] Use j/k keys or ←/→ to navigate Choose: U.S. gymnast Gabrielle Douglas performs on the balance beam during the artistic gymnastics women's individual all-around competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, on August 2, 2012. Douglas went on to win the Gold medal in the event. Mo Farah of Great Britain, shown on a giant screen as he receives his Gold medal for the 10,000 meter race on Day 9 of the London 2012 Olympic Games, on August 5, 2012. The full moon rises through the Olympic Rings hanging beneath Tower Bridge during the London 2012 Olympic Games, on August 3, 2012.
Our Far-Flung Correspondents: The Original Olympiads. Another ruling pancratist, Polydamas of Thessaly, was the subject of much mythology. Among other things, he was said to have been so strong that, using only one hand, he could halt a chariot in full flight. Darius, the Persian King, hearing such tales, invited the Greek to his capital. There Polydamas fought three soldiers of the imperial guard at the same time and killed them all—a feat that he may have regarded as routine. After the tension of the contact sports, the race in armor—the last of the athletic events—may have provided some agreeable levity. There are certainly some possible comic elements in the spectacle of men in heavy armor stumbling through sand in attempts to outrun one another.
We have no reliable evidence of how far the discus or the javelin was thrown, the length of the jump, or the speed of the runners. Official records of this kind were not kept. The festival's many traditional contests were also varied from time to time by cultural events. According to K. Noticias - Londres 2012: ¿Qué atleta olímpico serías tú? Catch A Looter. London riots. Shops and Cars Burn in Antipolice Riot in London.
London and UK riots: live. There is a context to London's riots that can't be ignored | Nina Power. Police in riot gear in Enfield, north London, on Sunday night. Photograph: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters Since the coalition came to power just over a year ago, the country has seen multiple student protests, occupations of dozens of universities, several strikes, a half-a-million-strong trade union march and now unrest on the streets of the capital (preceded by clashes with Bristol police in Stokes Croft earlier in the year). Each of these events was sparked by a different cause, yet all take place against a backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures. The government knows very well that it is taking a gamble, and that its policies run the risk of sparking mass unrest on a scale we haven't seen since the early 1980s.
With people taking to the streets of Tottenham, Edmonton, Brixton and elsewhere over the past few nights, we could be about to see the government enter a sustained and serious losing streak. London, Egypt and the complex role of social media. Revolutions and riots pre-date social media. Deep unrest, a history of oppositional organizing, economic downturns, corruption, and the relatively neutral position of the military are all factors that have impacted Egypt.
These far more dramatically shape the realities experienced in a country with 85 million people, under 5 percent of whom use Facebook and 1 percent use Twitter. While activists and younger, wealthier, and educated citizens may connect with one another and build strong ties via these technologies, legitimate grievances and community organizing more directly played a role in mobilizing the masses. Confronting these grievances by cutting off or hacking a communication technology, as one British lawmaker said should be done to Blackberry in London, fails to address the deep-rooted dissatisfaction that drove people to take to the streets. The Egypt case shows that when a regime cuts Internet, television, and mobile phone networks, protester numbers may actually increase.