Discover Britain’s best (and weirdest) artist – the Turner Prize 2012

Every year the Tate Gallery in London awards the Turner Prize to Britain’s weirdest artist. The award is £25,000 and there are four finalists exhibiting their work: Paul Noble – drawings of his invented city “Nobson Newtown” and scatological sculptures (poo statutes). Spartacus Chetwynd – medieval morality plays with characters dressed like trees. Luke Fowler – a film …

Web stats for the London 2012 Olympic Games

Just a small slice of the 70-page, London 2012 Olympic Games – Digital Report Web stats: 431 million visits 109 million unique visits (on average, each person visited four times) 15 million app downloads 4.73 billion pageviews (on average 11 page views/visit) 4.7 million followers on social networks Data: 1.3 petabytes of data served 117 billion …

Celebrating 40 years of Title IX with 40 amazing female athletes

Celebrating 40 years of Title IX It simply reads: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” When it became law on June 23, 1972, Title …

Don’t forget about the Paralympics – they’re on from Aug 31 – Sep 9

  I really enjoyed the Olympics, particularly seeing Oscar Pistorius compete in his carbon fibre Cheetah foot. Now, I’m looking forward to seeing some of the more exciting Paralympic events: Following his historic appearance at the Olympic Games – where he was the first male athlete with a disability to compete at the able-bodied Games – South …

To build the artificial river for the Olympics, designers used large lego-like blocks

Did you have a chance to see the white water sports at the Olympics, like kayaking and canoeing? If so, you probably noticed that the entire venue was artificial. The Lee Valley White Water Centre in the north of London was created out of a vast expanse of flat land. The designers, including a firm …

London 2012: women earn more medals, compete in more events, and represent more countries

Clearly, the U.S. has the best women in the world. As the London Olympics near their end, one of the biggest, most significant storylines is the dominance of America’s female athletes. There’s no other word for it. It’s because of the women — not the men — that the United States stands atop the medal …

NBC hits ratings gold, best ever – despite extensive online features, streaming events

NBC’s London Olympics ratings defy expectations NBC’s ratings are on track to outdistance numbers from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which many TV industry executives had figured would be a high-water mark. The last Summer Olympics to consistently attract such large crowds were the Montreal Games in 1976 — long before cable TV networks began splintering the audience. Wow, …

Is there prize money given with olympic medals?

There’s no pay from the IOC (International Olympic Committee) when they win a medal. But many countries Olympic committees pay their athletes for winning medals. Among them, The U.S., Russia, Canada, China & Italy and many more countries. $20K-$50K per gold medal is typical in bigger countries. The smaller countries actually tend to pay more, …

Maps of where Olympic athletes are born and where they move to

The map above shows the birthplace of the 500 athletes the United States sent to the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games. The break down: 9 percent (43 athletes) – are from Los Angeles 3.6 percent (17) – are from the Bay Area 3 percent (14) – are from greater New York 2.3 percent (11) from …

BMW shows off an electric scooter with 62 mile range, 75 mph speed, & 3-hour charge

A new BMW prototype is looking to split the difference between speed and range in electric scooters. BMW’s C Evolution, which the company recently presented as a “near-production prototype” in London, is a stylish but pretty ordinary-looking scooter that charges through sockets or a dedicated station. Its three-hour charge time gives users up to 100 …